I've gone through three stages with the prerecorded inaugural quartet. First, during the event, awe at what I thought was a live performance in frigid conditions. Second, the next day, a shrugged "of course" when I learned it was a recording. Third, ever since, a growing sense that however understandable the desire to ensure a pitch-perfect performance, it was a huge mistake. This terrific commentary by Eric Felten helps to explain why. The lip- (and bow- and key-) synched world is a gnostic world of false perfections. We must resist it, because it perpetuates one of the world's oldest lies: that we would be better off without bodies.

re: failure, music, performing arts, technology

Andy:

“There’s too many variables to go live. I would never recommend any artist go live because the slightest glitch would devastate the performance,” [explained Jennifer Hudson’s producer regarding her prerecorded Super Bowl anthem.] His justification echoed Itzhak Perlman explaining why the all-star classical quartet at the inauguration was prerecorded. “It would have been a disaster if we had done it any other way,” Mr. Perlman told the New York Times. “This occasion’s got to be perfect. You can’t have any slip-ups.”

My, what a standard of perfection is now demanded. No longer is a good or even a great performance good enough. Now we must have performances free from the “slightest glitch.” And since no one—not even a singer of Ms. Hudson’s manifest talent nor a violinist of Mr. Perlman’s virtuosity—can guarantee that a live performance will be 100% glitch-free, the solution has been to eliminate the live part. Once, synching to a recorded track was the refuge of the mediocre and inept; now it’s a practice taken up by even the best artists.