Intro
1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.
2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.
With all the lights and props performers use these days, it’s hard to know what’s really going on onstage when you go to a concert. Are they actually singing up there, or just lip synching?
Lip synching is when you move your lips as though you are singing, but you don’t make any sound. You’re just pretending while a recording plays.
Generally, fans don’t like it when artists lip synch. In the ‘80s, the band Milli Vanilli’s career was ruined when people found out they were lip synching.
Recently, the singer Beyonce sang the national anthem during the inauguration for President Obama’s second term. Or did she? Find out what Mason and Lily think about this controversy in this music English lesson.
Dialog
1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.
2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.
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Mason: So, did you catch the inauguration?
Lily: Yeah…
Mason: What, you’re not excited about the second term?
Lily: Well, no, it’s not that. I’m just upset about this whole Beyonce business.
Mason: Oh. What? Wait, the lip synch thing?
Lily: Yeah! It makes me really mad when people do that. It’s sort of like lying to your public, you know?
Mason: OK. Even if she was lip synching, and I’m not convinced she was, but even if it was something that was a pre-recorded track, she still sang the track, right?
Lily: Yeah, and she does have the pipes to back up her chops. But still, it’s kind of an unforgivable thing.
Mason: I don’t know. It feels like it’s such a big deal! She’s under a lot of pressure standing next to Barack Obama, the coolest President we’ve ever had.
Lily: But, when you’re on stage, you’re under a lot of pressure too, and as a vocalist, you need to handle that pressure. That’s part of being a performer.
Grammar Point
Go Super to learn "Adjectives" from this lesson
Quizzes
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Discussion
Lily is angry with Beyonce for lip synching during the inauguration. She thinks when artists lip synch, they are basically lying to their fans.
Mason isn’t sure that Beyonce was lip synching. He thinks she may have been singing along to a recording of herself, but that she was actually singing. Either way, he feels like she was under so much pressure at the inauguration, he understands why she wouldn’t want to sing live.
Lily thinks famous singers have to be able to handle pressure and that they should never lip synch.
What do you think about lip synching? If you were at a concert and found out the artist was lip synching, how would you feel?
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