Popular Song Recordings and the Disembodied Voice
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Lipsynching: Popular Song Recordings and the Disembodied Voice Merrie Snell Doctor of Philosophy School of Arts and Cultures April 2015 Abstract This thesis is an exploration and problematization of the practice of lipsynching to pre- recorded song in both professional and vernacular contexts, covering over a century of diverse artistic practices from early sound cinema through to the current popularity of vernacular internet lipsynching videos. This thesis examines the different ways in which the practice provides a locus for discussion about musical authenticity, challenging as well as re-confirming attitudes towards how technologically-mediated audio-visual practices represent musical performance as authentic or otherwise. It also investigates the phenomenon in relation to the changes in our relationship to musical performance as a result of the ubiquity of recorded music in our social and private environments, and the uses to which we put music in our everyday lives. This involves examining the meanings that emerge when a singing voice is set free from the necessity of inhabiting an originating body, and the ways in which under certain conditions, as consumers of recorded song, we draw on our own embodiment to imagine “the disembodied”. The main goal of the thesis is to show, through the study of lipsynching, an understanding of how we listen to, respond to, and use recorded music, not only as a commodity to be consumed but as a culturally-sophisticated and complex means of identification, a site of projection, introjection, and habitation, and, through this, a means of personal and collective creativity. Table of Contents Introduction 1 Lipsynching: Approaches and Perspectives 1 Participant Observation / Creative Practice: Fredasterical and YouGhost 5 Summary of Thesis Contents 9 A Few Final Notes 10 Chapter 1: The “Problems and Astonishments of the Dissociated Voice” 13 The ‘Vocalic Body’ and the ‘Sound Hermeneutic’ 20 Evolving Conventions of Sound Recording and Cinema 24 Reality: Recorded and Live 29 Chapter 2: Realism, Authenticity, and Otherwise: Lipsynching on Screen and Stage 31 Education: Moving Lips and Loud Speakers 31 “Silent” Cinema 32 Realist Conventions in Hollywood Sound Cinema 36 The Hollywood Musical—Practices and Conventions: Concealment and Authenticity 40 Singin’ in the Rain and the Ideal Voice 43 i The “Quest for the Perfect Fake” 52 Entertainment as Utopia 54 Scandals: When Musicians Lipsynch and the Authenticity Debate 57 Live vs. Mediatized 62 Chapter 3: Diegetic Lipsynch Performance 72 Of Mouse and Man 72 The Interior Externalized: Bridget Jones’s Diary 87 Possession: Beetlejuice 88 Identity Formation: Muriel’s Wedding 89 Community Bonding: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off 92 Chapter 4: Going Deeper, Going Darker: Lipsynching in the Works of Dennis Potter and David Lynch 95 Dennis Potter: “The Dramatist Who Made an Art Form Out of Plagiarism” 95 Dennis Potter’s Lipsynching Trilogy 102 Pennies from Heaven: Soul (and Body) 107 Popular Song in Pennies From Heaven 110 Popular Song as Surrogate Voice in Pennies From Heaven 113 The Singing Detective: Body (and Soul) 121 ii Freud’s Uncanny 138 David Lynch, Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive 143 Potter’s Uncanny 153 Chapter 5: Vernacular Lipsynch Practice 161 Background 165 Back Dorm Boys: ‘I Want It That Way’ by the Back Street Boys 167 Two College Guys: ‘Wannabe’ by the Spice Girls 168 Gary Brolsma (the “Numa Numa Guy”): ‘Dragostea Din Tei’ by O-Zone 170 The “Price of Perfection”: The Amateur 171 Corporate vs. Personal Investments: Copyright and Censorship 176 Lipsynch Performance, Musicking, and Ritual 182 Lipsynching and Fandom 187 Soundtracked Lives 193 Lipdub as Collective Soundtrack 199 Returning to the Uncanny 203 Reflections: Lipsynching as Art 208 Love, Relationships, and Other Concluding Observations 217 iii Appendix 1: Fredasterical ‘Pop Muzik’ viral screen shots 220 Figure 1, Turkish video-sharing website, vidivodo.com 220 Figure 2, “Free People” clothing company website 220 Figure 3, French filmmaking blog, La Frontiera Scomparsa 221 Figure 4, Danish “wiki” site, definition for “Pop” 221 Appendix 2: Ongoing Artistic Projects 222 MySong 222 Daughters of the Air 222 Bibliography 225 iv DVD Contents DVD1: Main Menu Introduction: Fredasterical Portfolio track 1: ‘Pop Muzik’ track 2: ‘Always on my Mind’ track 3: ‘How Fucking Romantic’ track 4: ‘Love Is Like a Bottle of Gin’ track 5: ‘My Young Man’ track 6: ‘The Game of Love’ track 7: ‘Something Stupid’ Chapter 2: Singin’ in the Rain – Lina’s final speech Chapter 3: Diegetic Lipsynch Numbers track 1: Andy Kaufman – ‘Mighty Mouse’ track 2: Bridget Jones’s Diary – ‘All By Myself’ track 3: Beetlejuice – ‘Day O (The Banana Boat Song)’ track 4: Muriel’s Wedding – ‘Waterloo’ track 5: Ferris Bueller's Day Off – ‘Twist and Shout’ track 6: Pretty in Pink – ‘Try a Little Tenderness’ DVD2: Main Menu Chapter 4: Potter and Lynch Potter: Pennies from Heaven track 1: ‘Anything Goes’ track 2: ‘You’ve Got Me Crying Again’ track 3: ‘Down Sunnyside Lane’ track 4: ‘The Glory of Love’ track 5: ‘Pennies from Heaven’ – Accordion Man lipsynch track 6: ‘Pennies from Heaven’ – Arthur lipsynch v Potter: The Singing Detective track 1: ‘Dem Bones’ track 2: ‘Cruising Down the River’ – detective-Marlow diegetic voice track 3: ‘Cruising Down the River’ -- Marlow diegetic voice track 4: ‘Cruising Down the River’ – detective-Marlow lipsynching track 5: ‘Paper Doll’ track 6: ‘After You’ve Gone’ Lynch: Mulholland Drive – ‘Llorando’ Lynch: Blue Velvet – ‘In Dreams’ Chapter 5: Vernacular Lipsynch Videos Group 1 track 1: Clint&Liz Style – ‘Top of the World’ track 2: MattyJ – ‘Billie Jean’ track 3: Megan Elisius – “The Luckiest” track 4: Henry Zbyszynski – ‘My Funny Valentine’ track 5: Billy Reid – ‘Lip Syncing to the Song’ track 6: Back Dorm Boys – ‘I Want It That Way’ track 7: Two College Guys – ‘Wannabe’ track 8: Gary Brolsma (The “Numa Numa Guy”) – ‘Dragostea Di Tei’ Group 2 track 1: B&B Style – ‘Fading Away Compilation’ track 2: SPCA of Wake County – ‘Take a Chance on Me’ track 3: TheBeatlesToday – ‘Hey Jude’ track 4: Connected Ventures Lipdub – ‘Flagpole Sitta’ track 5: Grand Rapids Lipdub: ‘American Pie’ track 6: Jimmy Slonina – ‘I Put a Spell on You’ vi DVD3: Main Menu YouGhost – audio-visual elements YouGhost – installation documentation, Sage-Gateshead 2010 vii Introduction [After choir practice I] go home in disgrace and go to my room and lie on my bed and wonder why God was so cruel to me, when what I most want to be in life is a singer. To be like Elvis, or be like Ezio Pinza, or be like George Beverly Shea! And stand up on stage somewhere, with light all over me, and sing to people in a marvellous voice that would tell people that life was full of magnificent surprises! And instead, he gave me a voice that tells people to ‘look out!’, ‘be careful!’. And so, to make myself feel better, I do as I always do and put on a record of Ezio Pinza from South Pacific … and pretend it’s me singing before a vast audience of people who’ve come to hear me. And I close my eyes as the music starts. And I face the dresser and the window, and I throw my head back. And I open my mouth and I mouth the words; just as my mother walks into the room with a load of socks in her hands and walks in front of me—between me and the footlights—puts the socks in the drawer, looks at me, walks out.1 Lipsynching: Approaches and Perspectives Lipsynching Miming Dubbing Doubling Playback Ghosting Impersonation Picturization Ventriloquism Plagiarism These are some of the terms we use to describe the practices and processes by which a voice is severed from its body and made to inhabit a new body, producing a hybrid, a composite that can call into question the authenticity and integrity of both. This thesis is an exploration and problematization of the practice of lipsynching to pre-recorded song in both professional and vernacular contexts, covering over a century of diverse artistic practices from early sound cinema through to the current popularity of vernacular internet lipsynching videos. In this thesis I shall be examining the different ways in which the practice provides a locus for discussion about musical authenticity, challenging as well as reconfirming attitudes towards how technologically-mediated !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 1 Garrison Keillor, ‘Me and Choir’, transcribed by M. Snell from Keillor, G., The News from Lake Wobegon: Spring, audio CD released by High Bridge Company, 1998. 1 audio-visual practices represent musical performance as authentic or otherwise, as well as relating the phenomenon to the changes in our relationship to musical performance as a result of the ubiquity of recorded music in our social and private environments,2 and the uses to which we put music in our everyday lives.3 What does it mean when a singing voice is set free from the necessity of inhabiting an originating body? How, under certain conditions, as consumers of recorded song, do we draw on our own embodiment to imagine the disembodied? This last question leads the way to the main goal of my thesis: "#!$#%&'()"#%*#+!,-!.,/!/&!0*()&#!),1!'&(2,#%!),1!"#%!$(&! '&3,'%&%!4$(*31!#,)!,#05!"(!"!3,44,%*)5!),!6&!3,#($4&%!6$)!"(!"!3$0)$'"0057 (,2.*()*3")&%!"#%!3,420&8!4&"#(!,-!*%&#)*-*3")*,#1!"!(*)&!,-!2',9&3)*,#1!*#)',9&3)*,#1! "#%!."6*)")*,#1!"#%1!).',$+.!).*(1!"!4&"#(!,-!2&'(,#"0!"#%!3,00&3)*:&!3'&")*:*)5; I take a two-fold approach to the methodologies I use to investigate lipsynching. The first is a scholarly treatment—a cultural-historical and hermeneutic approach—by which I examine lipsynching in a variety of historical contexts along with the interplay among them, as well as examining instances of lipsynching (and related issues) in commercially released films, TV broadcasts, and the user-generated lipsynching on YouTube, as primary sources.