I don't know if the sound engineers were all on vacation. Maybe they decided to let all of us know how much of what we consider talent is all the creation of studio technology. Whatever the reason, almost all of the performers sounded absolutely horrible. Perhaps the show was trying to lend credibility to artists by not having them lip sync. I'm certain some portions of the vocal performances were pre-recorded, but the parts that were live we off key and caused me to cringe.
From the performances I saw: Bon Jovi, Pink, Justin Bieber, and Ke$ha, the vocals were horrible. I realize that performing live is difficult, and I also understand that singing while dancing at the same time is difficult for the performers that do that.
Even more mind-boggling is how they attempt to create the illusion that performers are actually playing instruments when they clearly are not. When Justin Bieber was "playing piano" during his Sunday evening performance, the piano portion of the song continued to play after he stood up from the piano. It must be magic!
We shell out millions each year to hear these folks sing. I hope they are paying the producers and studio engineers well, because they obviously deserve it!
Check out Justin Bieber's magical piano below. At about 1:04 in the clip, you'll see the piano play all on its own, as well as witness the effects of puberty on the male voice.
Please weigh in with any thoughts you may have.
