Allow me to preface the following with a disclaimer, of sorts.

While the pop music industry has produced many legendary stars possessing genuine talent, there is increasing evidence the pop music industry represents nothing more than a grand illusion created to generate massive profits from a general public blind to the very deceptions regularly serving to dupe them.

What if, the favorite pop star one thought to be genuine, turned out to be entirely fake? 

An appropriate way to begin this article, would be to provide a fitting quote from the seminal Beatles pop classic ‘Strawberry Fields’:

“Nothing is real, but nothing to get hung up about.”

Though in agreement with John Lennon, one finds he was certainly no hero.

He only appeared to be.

Rather, Lennon and the classic pop phenomenon the Beatles, were merely puppets in the elites grand game of global hegemony. Like the stars of the NFL, pop stars play out a role scripted for them, marionettes trained to dance and sing to tunes not of their making.

Though one may resent my having once again violated delicate sensibilities, the fact is, many pop stars, both of yesterday and today, make it by faking it. 

MILLI VANILLI

Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan were once big stars. Their Grammy winning debut recording, ‘Girl you know it’s true’, skyrocketed to the top of the Billboard charts in the early nineties, going on to sell a reported ten million units. But, their proverbial fifteen minutes of fame came to a crashing halt one evening, when during a live performance, the prerecorded backing track the performers were miming to malfunctioned, thus exposing their fraud to the over eighty-thousand fans in attendance. Though this gigantic gaffe went on to be briefly reported by mainstream media sources, the groups record company attempted to vehemently deny any such malfeasance had taken place. But, there have been other instances of such blatant fraudulence. Not too long ago, at a music awards ceremony in the UK, none other than rock luminary Elton John publicly criticized music industry peer Madonna:

“Madonna for best live performer,” he scoffed. “Since when is lip syncing ever considered bloody live? I think if you’re paying over seventy-five quid for a live performance and someone gets up and lip syncs, that performer should be shot!”

While shooting a performer caught in the act of lip syncing may be a bit extreme, there exits undeniable evidence Mr. John may have a point.

But, there exist other such glaring cases.

Many generations of Britney Spears fans have recently become aware of this ’emperor with no clothes’ syndrome  running rampant throughout the industry. However, many music industry spokespersons, representing not only the artists themselves, but the record companies they generate profits for, continue to dodge the issue, issuing repeated and blatant denials their artists are in fact guilty of such ‘wild accusations’ of blatant fraudulence. Having been inside the music industry, one is well aware not only do many top selling artists lip sync while performing live, but the entire scenario of stardom created for them is a ruse as well.  Most likely, as has been the case for several decades going back to the nineteen eighties, the artists themselves represent nothing more than pretty faces and charismatic personalities, models propped up on CD and album covers in a corporate derived ploy to ‘move units’ and generate massive profits.

In truth, not only have many stars had little to do with creating the classic songs they are famous for performing, but many more may not have even performed on the recordings bearing their name. Further, there is significant evidence a live performance by some of the most famous pop stars is, in fact, not live, but prerecorded.

When you pay a small fortune to hear your favorite artist perform a concert, there is more than a significant chance what one hears is not a live performance. In truth, what one is hearing is a performer miming or lip syncing to a prerecorded backing track. For decades now, this is the dark secret no one in the industry, much less the general public beguiled by pop stardom, ever wants to truly acknowledge.

With music industry profits hobbled by the increase of free internet music downloads, live performances, along with merchandising, have become an artists major income staple. And, with increased demand for live performances, many performers have opted to make it by faking. This trickery extends to even the studio recordings. The performance one hears on studio recordings does not reflect the genuine sound of the performers authentic voice. What you are most likely hearing is an imperfect vocal performance processed and ‘auto-tuned’ by a piece of audio equipment many music producers term ‘the box’. 

THE BOX

The box, or what music industry professionals term auto-tune, destroys the human voices natural vibration but places it in tune with the recorded music. Its inventor, Andy Hildebrand, found the same sound wave vibrations that oil firms used to map the earths sub-surface, could be used to correct, or in some cases, even simulate the human voice.

One leading record producer, Max Martin, put it this way:

“Let’s just say I’ve used auto-tune to save vocals on every thing from Britney Spears recordings to Bollywood cast albums.”

The practice has become so common today, that Martin went on to add:

“And now every singer presumes you’ll just run their voice through the box.”

In fact, the widespread use of auto-tune software on all music recordings distributed by major record labels has become the standard of the industry.

Why, one may ask, would such a deceptive practice continue?

The reasons are twofold.

One, such deceptive practices are continued in order to ensure the ongoing flow of massive commercial profit margins. Secondarily, the increased demands of multi-city tours and public appearances, no doubt put a great strain on the limits of a performers human endurance. With regard to the latter issue, the decision to fake it rather than genuinely perform serves to elongate a performers career and minimize any possible damages sustained to the one asset a performer relies to make a living-their voice. Considering the enormous financial investments made in promoting such performers, every effort must be made to ensure years, or even decades of future profitability are never endangered.

The only question remaining for pop music fans, is this: Will you ever question the continued deception and choose to do something about it, or shall one decide to continue to be deceived?

STAY TUNED for the exciting conclusion of COLUMBINE AND SANDY HOOK HOAX CONNECTIONS (part III) COMING VERY SOON!