Singing at the presidential inauguration is a big
accomplishment for any performer. Beyoncé had the opportunity twice and for the
2013 inauguration she sang the National Anthem. This perfect opportunity was overshadowed by
talks of her lip syncing and not singing live.
Many performers lip-sync a pre-recorded track for big
events, so why is this a big deal. It would have been a different case if it’s
was not her voice, but she did not pull a Milli Vanilli. This was her voice
pre-recorded to make sure that moment was they way she wanted it. Besides
wanting to make the moment perfect, the weather that day was cold for anyone
let alone someone performing.
Whitney Houston lip-synced her performance of the National
Anthem during and it is said to be one of the best performances of all time.
Now the question is what is the difference between Whitney’s performance and Beyoncé’s.
Here is a video of Beyoncé’s amazing performance
Here is a performance by Whitney Houston that was lip-synced
When you listen to music it is suppose to stir up emotions
whether they are good or bad. So one would think that a product that is created
from emotion to create an emotion would have people behind it that will want to
promote that and not just looking to make money. Unfortunately we don’t live in
a perfect world and this is what the music industry is all about.
Record labels had all the power in the past. They made all
the decisions
·Artist image
·Type of music the artist created
·Structure of the album
·Which songs became singles
·When the singles would be released
The labels also retained a large portion of the profits made
from the artist’s music. So labels more that artists made a profit off of
record sales. With the change into the digital age this proposed a problem for
the labels. People were using P2P (Peer 2 Peer) sites to download music instead
of buying it.
With the access to various sites consumers can search for
music easily, choose to purchase it or just listen to it while streaming
online. Artist can also upload their music to various websites and cut out the
middleman and keep most of the profits. No longer needing the label to pick and
choose what artists are worthy to produce music for the public, it is now accessible
to everyone.
In my opinion I would say yes, not so much in the profit to
the artist or the label but in the quality of music. No longer is music about
substance or trying to create emotions or tell a story. Music has turned into
displaying a famous lifestyle to the masses. Since artist can upload their own
music they are producing cookie cutter versions of songs that are trending at
the time.
We need to get back to a time where an artist created their
own path with their music. Where songs talked about more than women, money and
cars. The labels need to embrace technology, not fight it. This can help
promote a change of the industry by integrating the old with the new and
forcing artist to create the type of music that they did in the past.
