ACM Admits to “Plenty of People” Lip Syncing on the Show
The alert and conscientious country music fan has always held deep suspicious that country music award shows, especially the ACM’s, featured lip-synced performances on an annual basis, but we may just now be discovering the depth of the deception on the American public during the presentations.
Country trio Rascal Flatts faced a lip syncing controversy coming out of the 2014 ACM Awards after they decided to pantomime to a pre-recorded track of their song “Rewind” for the presentation. The lip-sync was so obvious, the band was forced to come clean the next day, telling fans, “After having performed several shows earlier in the week, Gary [LeVox] lost his voice. So, instead of cancelling our commitment to do the show, we made a last minute decision to lip-sync. We’ve never done it before, and we’re obviously not very good at it. We look forward to singling live again in the very near future!”
That’s all fine and good, maybe it was just a once-in-a-lifetime thing and Rascal Flatts and the ACM’s had learned their lesson, right? Well, not so fast. The executive producer of the ACM Awards RAC Clark while speaking to Country Aircheck in their latest issue and looking to sweep the lip-sync controversy under-the-rug as no big deal, instead allowed the skeletons to come cascading out of the ACM’s lip-syncing closet.
“There have been plenty of people who have lip-synced on our show,” RAC Clark said, thinking this knowledge would somehow make the Rascal Flatts subterfuge not as big of a deal. Instead it finally validates the suspicions of many viewers and country music fans that what they’re seeing on the ACM Awards many times is not real.
RAC Clark:
We knew there was an issue in dress rehearsal. In talking with [managers] Clarence Spalding and Randy Goodman, they said he can’t sing. We talked about the options, which were basically canceling and lip-synching. And I told them, that’s up to you. And they didn’t want to cancel. I think it was a good move. There have been plenty of people who have lip-synched on our show. I’ll never reveal who, but there are a lot of activities in Las Vegas with other concerts, private shows, radio remotes there is a lot of talking. Not to mention the lack of humidity and hotel air. Some artists, especially those with a finely tuned instrument like Gary LeVox’s, can only handle so much.
Making the matter worse is the fact that the 2014 ACM Awards started off with host Blake Shelton cracking a joke at the expense of current Las Vegas residency performer Brittney Spears (and sis of Jamie Lynn Spears who was sitting in the audience) saying viewers shouldn’t expect a lip-synced show, but “real live music.”
ACM executive producer RAC Clark also explained why Album of the Year winner Kacey Musgraves was not given a performance slot on the night, saying, “It started as a shorter performance, and she declined. We came back with something a bit longer, and it eventually came down to her wanting a full performance. We kept pushing at time, but couldn’t make it work. No disrespect to songwriters, but the viewing habits of the public are now at about 1.5 minutes.”
The lip syncing revelations come in a rough year for the ACM Awards where concerns about the lack of female performers on the show and Justin Moore’s ineligibility for New Artist of the Year tainted the year’s festivities in some fan’s eyes. Ratings for the show were slightly down in 2014, but came the year after a 15-year ratings peak for the presentation.
April 15, 2014 @ 5:43 pm
“No disrespect to songwriters, but the viewing habits of the public are now at about 1.5 minutes.”
And if that’s not the most telling statement of all, I don’t know what is. Look, I don’t have the greatest faith in the viewing public either, but odds are you’re going to get a more conservative, likely older viewing demographic at a country awards show, and if the performer is good enough, they’ll keep watching. And the reports are in, Kacey’s performance at the Grammys following Kendrick Lamar and Imagine Dragons (arguably the best and most explosive performance) was one that kept the audience’s attention.
You couldn’t take away a few minutes of hyperbolic ramping and pyrotechnics from fucking Florida Georgia Line or from Rascal Flatts who weren’t even singing to give the winner of your album of a year a chance to get some airplay, because you think the attention span of your listeners is 90 seconds? Because Kacey likely wasn’t going to spew fireballs from her ass or go full pop sell-out, you don’t give her airtime for a full song from her album, all of which were around 3 minutes max? Really?
Between this, the Justin Moore debacle, and the obvious lip syncing, which inmates are running the asylum here?
April 15, 2014 @ 5:52 pm
That statement by Clark explains the entire overproduced bro-country phenomenon. It tells us exactly how the country music industry views its audience.
April 15, 2014 @ 6:03 pm
“the viewing habits of the public are now at about 1.5 minutes.”
Yet, the ACMs still found time for not one, but TWO performances by Florida Georgia Line. So, they should tell us again about how it was a “timing issue.”
Kacey was up for one of the big awards. She should have been given a full performance.
April 15, 2014 @ 6:15 pm
And good for Kacey for sticking to her guns and not doing an abbreviated performance.
Do any of these people know what a story arc is? Character and setting development? There was not a single “moment” on the 2014 ACM Awards. Moments take time to develop, and much more time than 90 seconds.
April 16, 2014 @ 6:48 am
“No disrespect to songwriters, but the viewing habits of the public are now at about 1.5 minutes.”
I agree 100% Trigger. You can’t even do a song about screwing some drunk chick on a tailgate down by the river in 90 seconds. (Not that I would ever write one of those pieces of crap–Ha!.)
April 15, 2014 @ 6:01 pm
It’s true the ACM ratings were down slightly in total viewers (-8%) but they took a bigger hit in the adults 18-49 demo that advertisers prioritize (-23%) (source).
In its statement about lip syncing this year, Rascal Flatts say they’ve “never” lip synced before. However, if you go back to the 2006 ACMs, they pretaped a performance of “Me & My Gang” that was aired as a live performance but was lip synced. That performance became the video for the song and is on VEVO now. To be fair, they sang live at the show itself, performing “What Hurts The Most” with Kelly Clarkson.
In 2008 Taylor Swift performed “Should’ve Said No” and sang live for most of it, but lip synced to a live-to-tape version for the last portion of the performance, when she was in the middle of a water shower.
Another example of lip syncing: Kenny Chesney on the 2010 ACMs, performing “Ain’t Back Yet.” The following night, he would sing live at the ACM Brooks & Dunn salute called The Last Rodeo, though maybe that was because any errors could be fixed in post (the show aired about a month after the taping).
There was more than 1 reason the ACM writers should’ve rewritten the Britney Spears lip syncing jab, and the reality behind RAC Clark’s admission is a major 1 among them. The joke itself made it seem like country acts are self-congratulatory and smug, and now they kind of look hypocritical.
As far as the Kacey Musgraves performance explanation, let’s get this straight. There was time for Guy Fieri to plug his restaurant, time for full performances from 6 male non-nominees (including a lip synced performance), time for 2 performances apiece from Florida Georgia Line, Luke Bryan, Blake Shelton, Miranda Lambert, and George Strait, time for cohosts Luke and Blake to do a prolonged selfie gag, but there wasn’t time for a full Kacey Musgraves performance in a year when Miranda Lambert was the only solo female who got a solo performance slot and performed her own material on the broadcast. Way to help out with a playing field that’s tilted against women!
All things considered, the choices by ACM producers reflect the priorities of mainstream country music. Those choices were rewarded by a 23% decline in the ratings prized by the advertisers whose support bankrolls these TV and radio broadcasts. I’m not naive enough to think the ACM producers will learn the right lessons from this, but I’m glad their poor decisionmaking wasn’t rewarded.
April 15, 2014 @ 6:23 pm
Glad I missed this scripted nonsense.
I don’t watch award shows and I don’t listen to many artists who would be on this show.
April 15, 2014 @ 6:28 pm
That Kacey Musgraves excuse is bullshit!
April 15, 2014 @ 6:33 pm
Truthfully I don’t know what the right answer is. I mean of course they are gonna roll FGL and Luke Bryan out there, they are what mainstream fans want. No TV show on a major network is gonna have a bunch of singer songwriters who most people don’t know on the show. They are in the money making business, so that’s what they are trying to do. Part of me wants to applaud Kacey for sticking to her guns, but part of me sees someone whose head may have gotten a little big after the Grammys. She’s not George Jones, she is not a living legend who should be insulted by an abbreviated performance, I mean she has done it before on one of the shows, so it’s not like she has always refused to do an abbreviated performance. I don’t expect these shows to change, some people are just different. I asked my buddy why he doesn’t like Sturgill Simpson, but listens to Luke Bryan and he tells me that he sees reality 40-60 hrs a week at the mill and then when he’s goes home and he wants to have fun when he listens to music, not more reality. I think that’s probably how a lot of people feel.
April 16, 2014 @ 8:20 am
She may not be a legend but she was one of the nights top nominees so she should of had a full performance. Period. Especially since six people (all males) got to preform without a single nomination not to mention the people getting multiple performances. I applaud Kacey for standing up for herself.
April 16, 2014 @ 3:25 pm
It wasn’t as if she released a statement lambasting the ACMs, or stirring up trouble. She simply declined to perform. We wouldn’t have even known about it if RAC Clark hadn’t mentioned it in the interview.
April 15, 2014 @ 6:51 pm
Why wouldn’t they go with a solid performance? Why not pick someone who’s setting the bar higher?
Why aim low because that’s the way we’ve always done things. Sounds like a federal agency rather than an awards show.
April 15, 2014 @ 7:12 pm
Terrible. Absolutely disgusting. Kacey deserved a full performance and it would have been lightyears better than about 75% of the worms that performed. It makes me feel like a proud father hearing that she declined to do a shortened performance. Boo ACMs, Go Musgraves.
April 15, 2014 @ 7:12 pm
A production with a large budget that is being televised is false and misleading.
Well.. color me surprised! Regardless of genre, I am not surprised anymore – especially considering this genre has taken a turn for the worst in the past several years. Style over substance + smoke and mirrors, if you ask me.
April 15, 2014 @ 7:53 pm
Not a big of today “country” and I can’t recall the last time I watched an awards show. Not suprised that lip synching happens I just find it funny how Blake Shelton made that stupid comment about Brittney and hopefully someone calls him out on it. I see that some people are upset about Kacey not getting the time she “deserved” and I go back to Unforgiven when Clint states deserve has nothing to do with it.
I don’t know if Kacey is a “big” star but I think she should have played. I would think the opportunity to play in front of millions is something an artist would want to take advantage of.
April 16, 2014 @ 9:08 am
Look at that picture of a 44 year old man with spiked hair trying to look like a teeny bopper. How effing pathetic. Loser.
April 16, 2014 @ 9:25 am
This is what happens when you have “artists” who started at open-mic and karaoke nights, then got hooked up with industry suits. They simply don’t know how to get it done night after night without AutoTurd and three dozen people on stage behind them.
Poor Rascal Fats couldn’t sing… when was the last time that tubby fruitcake HAD to gig so he could eat? I just read Buck Owens’ autobiography, and he told several stories of taking guys on the road with him so they could make some bread and feed their families.
These prissy posers haven’t had to WORK at performing in years, if ever. They’ve been coddled by a shallow, greedy mainstream industry that turns out pop crap like them all the time. As soon as there’s a glitch in their system, well, then, just LIE about it and have them fake it. They won’t complain, and the suits could assume that most of their audience were unaware idiots.
Wait… most of the audience for that shit ARE a bunch of unaware idiots.
Honestly, though… no big shock that the ACM promoted lick-stinking. Those funny-ass pretty boys are there because they’re “cute” and they can warble, and they’ll sing, dance or fake their way through whatever pays them. That’s why no one who knows any better calls that crap “country music”. Loretta would be appalled. Ain’t no shovel ever fit their sissy-ass hands.
April 16, 2014 @ 10:01 am
Here’s what Iron Maiden did when asked to lip sync
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzqGQkLMo9o
April 16, 2014 @ 12:18 pm
Good one.
Here’s Public Image on American Bandstand, 1980. They just stop playing. Then walk around in the audience talking to people, and fake dancing to their own song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZLhqTzjpUM
April 16, 2014 @ 5:47 pm
Y’all are giving me an idea…. 😉
April 16, 2014 @ 9:07 pm
New video/tune by Michael Jackson Montgomery?
April 16, 2014 @ 9:20 pm
That is outstanding. Probably the only time something spontaneous happened on that show in thirty years.
April 17, 2014 @ 1:30 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plHbsL53isE Nirvana did it as well.
April 16, 2014 @ 10:54 am
I guess I’m in the minority here, because I don’t care one bit about lip syncing during awards shows. It’s not a concert, it’s a prepackaged TV show. Plus the sound tends to be terrible when they are singing live.
April 16, 2014 @ 11:56 am
I don’t care about lip synching at awards shows because I never watch them.
April 16, 2014 @ 8:19 pm
I’m very glad you’ve written this article and opened eyes for those who thought differently. The dreaded “suits” have a financial concern, whose goal is to produce an excellent “show” constricted by time. Logically, lip syncing is therefore a financial necessity. The age old truth remains that “the man with the money makes the rules.” Unfortunately, “suits” and “artists” mix like oil and vinegar. What’s needed is a compassionate Art Director and Producer that can bridge the gap. Obviously that’s hard to come by. Lookin’ forward to my crack at it !
April 17, 2014 @ 10:57 am
I’m still sickened that Stevie Nicks was on that show and sang with one of those groups. I still hope she didn’t lip sync though.