CMU School of Drama


Thursday, February 05, 2009

Springsteen's Super Bowl sellout?

CNET News: "Did you catch Bruce Springsteen's halftime performance on Sunday? Turns out, you were listening to The Boss sing to a prerecorded backing track.
According to this Chicago Tribune interview with Super Bowl pregame entertainment producer Hank Neuberger, only Springsteen's vocals were live (Jennifer Hudson and Faith Hill lip-synched)."

2 comments:

arosenbu said...

it makes me really sad that there isn't really anymore live performances, other than the theatre. The fact that a singer can't even sing the national anthem without having to do it prerecorded is awful. People were mad at Springsteen because they thought he was an upstanding performer, and the truth is he's better than most.

AndrewLeitch said...

As personal and subjective as this sounds, I've kind of gave up hating how performers essentially lie to their audiences by not doing all their vocals live, and got over it. It's not really going to change, and as the article points out, oftentimes it's just a sublimate to the real singer's physical ability, age...etc. Still, though, it kind of sucks to go expecting live music only to know it's not.

Then again, this is probably because I'm a fan of the overall spectacle of concerts, not just the music itself. And, for me, everything still looks and sounds good and I enjoy myself, even if a verse or two of music is pre-recorded.

HOWEVER. I REALLY hope this doesn't pickup and become a trend for live musical theatre. I think then we really start screwing with the art form.