History Main / ThatSyncingFeeling

* During her 2004 performance on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'', Music/AshleeSimpson was revealed to be lip-syncing when her voice started singing even though she wasn't. She gave some awkward dance moves (which she described as a "hoe-down") before sheepishly walking offstage. The incident proved to be the beginning of the end for her music career; the killing blow came later at the Orange Bowl halftime show, where she tried singing for real and demonstrated ''why'' the practice of lip-syncing exists.

* Music/MariahCarey had this happen to her during the 2017 New Years' Eve celebration in New York, prompting jokes that the last death of 2016 was her career.

* In one ''WebComic/KevinAndKell'' strip, Fenton can tell a singer is lip-syncing thanks to his echolocation.

* A Subverted example took place during WebAnimation/{{hololive}}'s "Link Your Wish" festival in March 2022 when Calliope Mori performed "on-stage" (given that she's a VTuber, the term needs to be amended a bit). It was clear as her performance progressed that her lips were out of synch with the lyrics, but Calli was actually performing live -- what happened was that she was rapping so fast the face-tracking sensors that were supposed to convey her facial movements in real time could not keep up and essentially ended up lagging.

* Music/MilliVanilli is the TropeCodifier for this and RepetitiveAudioGlitch. From 1988 to 1990, the duo was one of the most successful pop acts in Europe and the US. However, when they performed live onstage on MTV in mid-1989, the recording of the song "Girl You Know It's True" played and [[RepetitiveAudioGlitch began to skip]], repeating "Girl, you know it's..." over and over on the speakers. They continued to lipsynch onstage for a few moments before [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere running offstage]] when [[OhCrap they realized what was happening]]. While this didn't keep them from winning a Grammy for Best New Artist the next year, people became suspicious - especially after one of the ''actual'' singers announced that it was a scam before retracting his statements [[RevealingCoverup at the duo's request]]. Eventually, their producer finally confessed to the scam, causing their Grammy to be revoked and twenty-seven lawsuits to be filed against them for fraud. Their debut album was pulled from shelves and the masters were deleted, while their second album was hastily re-credited to the actual singers, branded "The Real Milli Vanilli" (or "Try 'N' B"), and [[NoExportForYou only released in Brazil, Europe, Asia, and New Zealand]].

* Subverted in a ''WesternAnimation/PlutoThePup'' cartoon. Pluto discovers that he can act as a gramophone by putting his tail on the spinning record and opening his mouth. He uses this to lip-synch to a Frank Sinatra song, much to the delight of a crowd of girl dogs. Pluto's tail skips during the final chorus of the song, and he briefly panics, but he's able to correct it before any of his adoring fans notice.

* During her 2004 performance on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'', Music/AshleeSimpson was revealed to be lip-syncing when her voice started singing even though she wasn't. She gave some awkward dance moves (which she described as a "hoe-down") before sheepishly walking offstage. The incident proved to be the beginning of the end for her music career; the killing blow came later at the Orange Bowl halftime show, where she tried singing for real and demonstrated ''why'' some artist resort to lip-syncing.

* During her 2004 performance on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'', Music/AshleeSimpson was revealed to be lip-syncing when her voice started singing even though she wasn't. She gave some awkward dance moves (which she described as a "hoe-down") before sheepishly walking offstage. The incident proved to be the beginning of the end for her music career; the killing blow came later at the Orange Bowl halftime show, where she sung ''without'' lip-syncing, with results featured on the Horrible.MusicPerformances page.

Compare HongKongDub for the movie equivalent.

* During her 2004 performance on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'', Music/AshleeSimpson was revealed to be lip-syncing when her voice started singing even though she wasn't. She gave some awkward dance moves (which she described as a "hoe-down") before sheepishly walking offstage. The incident proved to be the beginning of the end for her music career.

-->-- '''Rob Pilatus''', on the disastrous concert that led to Music/MilliVanilli's exposure as a fraud.

-->-- '''Fab Morvan''', on the disastrous concert that led to Music/MilliVanilli's exposure as a fraud.

* ''Series/TopOfThePops'' routinely forced acts to lip-sync their songs, and several acts invoked this trope as a protest against being forced to do so. In the most extreme cases, band members would not even ''pretend'' to play their instruments, and would just stand there while the song kept playing in the background.

* The British rock band Music/TheOutfield did this a lot during their prime (the mid to late '80s) for some reason, to the point that actual live performances of their SignatureSong "Your Love" are rare. The most commonly uploaded video of them lip-syncing is their "performance" in Montreaux, Switzerland to the original ''Play Deep'' '''album''' recording of the song, which is also what they lip-synched to in other footage. They ''did'' release an ''actual'' live album of their performance in Tyler, Texas, and more recent performances from the band (at least until they broke up after guitarist and main songwriter John Spinks's [[AuthorExistenceFailure death]]) are also genuine live performances, as well as Tony Lewis's (the lead singer) own solo live performances.

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** "WesternAnimation/PigsInAPolka" has TheBigBadWolf sneak into the ''Literature/ThreeLittlePigs''' house by disguising himself as a beggar woman playing a violin. One peeks under his dress and discovers a record playing violin music. He switches the record to the other side, which plays an upbeat polka. The wolf immediately starts dancing and sheds his disguise in the process.

* Music/MilliVanilli and the RepetitiveAudioGlitch OfDoom, the TropeCodifier. In length and (some) detail...\\\
From 1988 to 1990, the German RAndB[=/=]dance duo Music/MilliVanilli was one of the most successful pop acts in Europe and the US. In 1989, however, rumors started circulating that they had never sung any of their songs themselves, instead just lip-syncing and dancing along. As they performed live onstage on MTV at the Lake Compounce theme park in Bristol, Connecticut in July 1989, the recording of the song "Girl You Know It's True" played and [[RepetitiveAudioGlitch began to skip]], repeating the partial line "Girl, you know it's..." over and over on the speakers -- in other words, [[ExampleAsThesis these guys provide the example in the description.]] They continued to pretend to sing and dance onstage for a few more moments, then [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere they both ran offstage]] when [[OhCrap they realized what was happening]]. While this didn't keep them from winning a Grammy for Best New Artist in February 1990, people began to wonder -- especially after Charles Shaw (one of the ''actual'' singers) announced that it was a scam, and only retracted his statements [[RevealingCoverup after being paid off to do so]]. Their poor English skills when interviewed also fueled speculation.\\\
When producer Frank Farian finally confessed to the scam, a massive media backlash erupted, with their Grammy being revoked and twenty-seven lawsuits filed against them for fraud. Their debut album ''Girl You Know It's True'' was pulled from shelves and the masters deleted (making it the highest-selling album to ever be taken out of print), while their once-anticipated second album was hastily re-credited to the actual singers, branded "The Real Milli Vanilli" (also known as Try 'N' B), and [[NoExportForYou only released in Brazil, Europe, Asia, and New Zealand]].
* During Music/MichaelJackson's last few TV concerts, he was pretty obviously lip-syncing, including that he'd cover up his mouth so people wouldn't catch on to the fact that he was mouthing along with the music.
* During her 2004 performance on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'', Music/AshleeSimpson was revealed to be lip-syncing when her voice started singing even though she wasn't. She gave some embarrassed dance moves (which she described as a "hoe-down") before sheepishly walking offstage. The incident proved to be the beginning of the end for her music career.
* British singer Betty Boo was famously booed off stage when the audience realized she was lip-syncing her songs to a backing tape.
* A number of early commercials for the Xbox Kinect didn't actually feature live gameplay; the screen displayed prerecorded video, which played while the "player" tried to awkwardly synchronize his movements with the action. A number of viewers were able to pick up on this, and it became painfully noticeable when it was found that the first Kinect games weren't even close to as responsive (or loading assets as fast) as the hype led them to believe. To a lesser extent the same happened regarding the Wii and its motion controls, which was hidden mostly by way of ''not'' showing gameplay and the person playing the game in the same shot; the ''VideoGame/RedSteel'' trailer, for instance, had one scene with the "player", contemplating whether to finish off an enemy after a sword duel, making a motion that would have most definitely registered as "swing sword and execute them" in the actual game before he reconsiders.
* According to a ''VideoGame/{{StarCraft}}'' developer, the game started out as a complete clone of ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}} II'', including nausea-inducing graphics and clumsy controls. Then at a game show, the booth next to them showed a revolutionary (for the time) RTS game that led Blizzard to make the game as we know it. Only later did he find out the demo was prerecorded with the demonstrators pretending to play.

* This Theatre/TheRockAfireExplosion [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfVgtOArj1E skit for Showbiz Pizza in the 80s]] involved Rolfe Dewolfe claiming he would be singing a tribute to Music/FrankSinatra, to the dismay of his sentient ventriloquist puppet Earl. But Rolfe simply lip-syncs to a record of Sinatra's song "Witchcraft," and Earl notices something screwy when the record glitches...

* [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin In short,]] Music/MilliVanilli [[TheNounAndTheNoun and the]] RepetitiveAudioGlitch OfDoom, [[TropeCodifier the Trope Codifier.]] [[PopCulturalOsmosisFailure In length and (some) detail...]]\\\

From 1988 to 1990, the German RAndB[=/=]dance duo Music/MilliVanilli was one of the most successful pop acts in Europe and the US. In 1989, however, rumors started circulating that they had never sung any of their songs themselves, instead just lip-syncing and dancing along. As they performed live onstage on MTV at a theme park in Connecticut in July 1989, the recording of the song "Girl You Know It's True" played and [[RepetitiveAudioGlitch began to skip]], repeating the partial line "Girl, you know it's..." over and over on the speakers -- in other words, [[ExampleAsThesis these guys provide the example in the description.]] They continued to pretend to sing and dance onstage for a few more moments, then [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere they both ran offstage]] when [[OhCrap they realized what was happening]]. While this didn't keep them from winning a Grammy for Best New Artist in February 1990, people began to wonder -- especially after Charles Shaw (one of the ''actual'' singers) announced that it was a scam, and only retracted his statements [[RevealingCoverup after being paid off to do so]]. Their poor English skills when interviewed also fueled speculation.\\\

* 1990's singer Betty Boo was famously booed off stage (Betty-booed?) when the audience realised she was lip-syncing her songs to a backing tape. Her career never recovered.

When producer Frank Farian finally confessed to the scam, a massive media backlash erupted, with their Grammy being revoked and twenty-seven lawsuits filed against them for fraud. It didn't help that member Rob Pilatus proclaimed himself to be [[SmallNameBigEgo "the new Elvis"]], reasoning that by the duo's success they were musically more talented than Bob Dylan, Paul [=McCartney=], and Mick Jagger. Their debut album ''Girl You Know It's True'' was pulled from shelves and the masters deleted (making it the highest-selling album to ever be taken out of print), while their once-anticipated second album was hastily re-credited to the actual singers, branded "The Real Milli Vanilli" (also known as Try 'N' B), and [[NoExportForYou only released in Brazil, Europe, Asia, and New Zealand]]. The duo became [[DeaderThanDisco a punchline for jokes about bad pop music]] for the rest of the decade.

* At the disastrous Coolfest 99 festival in ''VideoGame/HypnospaceOutlaw'', people are already suspecting Coolpunk of SellingOut, which is not helped when the pioneering Coolpunk artist [=FRE3ZER=] is caught lipsyncing at his concert. His few fans claim he just had to sync along with a bit that had pre-recorded effects, but videos of the failure get swapped around online and the Coolpunk Paradise hub page begins shifting over to a more general 'music creators' hub.

From 1988 to 1990, the German RAndB[=/=]dance duo Music/MilliVanilli was one of the most successful pop acts in Europe and the US. In 1989, however, rumors started circulating that they had never sung any of their songs themselves, instead just lip-syncing and dancing along. As they performed live onstage on MTV in July 1989, the recording of the song "Girl You Know It's True" played and [[RepetitiveAudioGlitch began to skip]], repeating the partial line "Girl, you know it's..." over and over on the speakers -- in other words, [[ExampleAsThesis these guys provide the example in the description.]] They continued to pretend to sing and dance onstage for a few more moments, then [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere they both ran offstage]] when [[OhCrap they realized what was happening]]. While this didn't keep them from winning a Grammy for Best New Artist in February 1990, people began to wonder -- especially after Charles Shaw (one of the ''actual'' singers) announced that it was a scam, and only retracted his statements [[RevealingCoverup after being paid off to do so]]. Their poor English skills when interviewed also fueled speculation.\\\

* WWE: Wrestling/JeffJarrett's gimmick is as a country singer who is using wrestling as a springboard to success in the music industry and his entreance theme song is his "big hit." After Jarrett left, it was revealed that his assistant Roadie (aka Road Dogg Jesse James) was really the one singing on the song.

* The Ashlee Simpson incident on ''SNL'' is parodied in a CutawayGag from the ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' episode, "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS4E15BrianGoesBackToCollege Brian Goes Back to College]]" when "Ol' Man River" from ''Theatre/{{Showboat}}'' starts playing when she opens her mouth.

* A number of early commercials for the Xbox Kinect didn't actually feature live gameplay; the screen displayed prerecorded video, which played while the "player" tried to awkwardly synchronize his movements with the action. A number of viewers were able to pick up on this, and it became painfully noticeable when it was found that the first Kinect games weren't even close to as responsive (or loading as fast) as the hype led them to believe. To a lesser extent the same happened regarding the Wii and its motion controls, which was hidden mostly by way of ''not'' showing gameplay and the person playing the game in the same shot; the ''VideoGame/RedSteel'' trailer, for instance, had one scene with the "player", contemplating whether to finish off an enemy after a sword duel, making a motion that would have most definitely registered as "swing sword and execute them" in the actual game.

* Lipsyncing caused a bit of a scandal in K-Pop during the early [=2000s=] once it became public that many music acts weren't singing live[[note]]considering some acts were performing with what were clearly cheap computer headsets not plugged into anything, it shouldn't have been too much of a surprise[[/note]]. Rather causing an end to the practice, though, music-performance shows started clearly labeling if an act was live or lipsyncing.