This is an incredibly sad story about the evils of the music industry, and how human life is disposable as long as there is money to be made.
People lip-sync all the time. It's not a big deal. What Milli Vanilli were accused of in the press was overtly dramatised and unfair. Sure they were naive and impulsive to not read their contracts, but the man behind all of this, Frank Farian, got off absolutely scot free, while Rob and Fab payed the ultimate price, simply because they were the face of the product. While Fab was able to bounce back, start a family and re-ignite his career as a solo artist, Rob descended into horrific drug addiction, getting arrested several times, and ultimately passing away due to an overdose.
The worst thing about this is that Rob and Fab actually COULD sing and rap. They just weren't allowed to. And despite Rob and Fab arguably not being able to speak much English at the beginning, that could have been been easily arranged. They could have sung in German, made some money, and then worked on their English and released an accessible album for all and still be successful.
There have been many instances where artists were not allowed to sing on their own tracks and were just put there for show because they 'looked good'. (English R&B girl band The Honeyz being one) Human artists were seen as products. And because they they were not what they appeared, the public took it out the product. This was one of the most famous examples of greedy studios using artists as puppets for their own gain. Yet it still happens in various different ways to this day.
People lip-sync all the time. It's not a big deal. What Milli Vanilli were accused of in the press was overtly dramatised and unfair. Sure they were naive and impulsive to not read their contracts, but the man behind all of this, Frank Farian, got off absolutely scot free, while Rob and Fab payed the ultimate price, simply because they were the face of the product. While Fab was able to bounce back, start a family and re-ignite his career as a solo artist, Rob descended into horrific drug addiction, getting arrested several times, and ultimately passing away due to an overdose.
The worst thing about this is that Rob and Fab actually COULD sing and rap. They just weren't allowed to. And despite Rob and Fab arguably not being able to speak much English at the beginning, that could have been been easily arranged. They could have sung in German, made some money, and then worked on their English and released an accessible album for all and still be successful.
There have been many instances where artists were not allowed to sing on their own tracks and were just put there for show because they 'looked good'. (English R&B girl band The Honeyz being one) Human artists were seen as products. And because they they were not what they appeared, the public took it out the product. This was one of the most famous examples of greedy studios using artists as puppets for their own gain. Yet it still happens in various different ways to this day.