Milli Vanilli--Admit It!!

[Robbie]

I couldn't help but watch a little bit of VH-1's "100 Most Shocking Moments" and see Milli Vanilli's Grammy fiasco up there on the list. When I was in high school, they were very popular and not too long ago, while looking through old boxes in my attic, I found the cassette tape of "Girl You Know It's True" I had bought around 1989.

Did anyone else here have this tape/CD also?? I noticed that a MV track made a recent "Hell's Playlist". I'll always get a laugh out of seeing that clip of them performing on the Club MTV tour when the taped recording of "Girl You Know It's True" got jammed and kept skipping: "Girl You Know It's, Girl You Know It's, Girl You Know It's..."

I wasn't one of those that decided to take part in the big "Steamroll" once the news hit that they lip-synched the songs.

[HustleBaby]

I wasn't crazy about their videos especially "Girl You Know Its True", they looked so damn goofy.

But I have to admit that up to this day, I still love their songs or whoever was singing. Ron Pilatius (the green-eyed one)was gorgeous may he rest in peace. My friend used to have the MV tape but she like everyone else threw it out. Believe it or not, I would still buy MV tape/cd if I ever come across it. My favorite songs of MV are:

1.Girl You Know Its True
2.Blame It On The Rain
3.Girl I'm Gonna Miss You

*DISCO DELIGHT*

[markydefad]

I once encountered the Milli Vanilli guys one morning as they drove up to an ATM machine at the Sunset/Doheny branch of City National Bank, here in West Hollywood. They musta been up all night cause it was waaay too early for them to be so overdressed and in such desperate need of cash. As I recall, they were BIG guys in a teeny cream-colored European sports convertible. It seems like one of them was sorta standing up in the car as it pulled up to the ATM. This was BEFORE their disgrace.

I was just getting our office mail from the building post office, next to the ATM.

Other celebrity sightings at that same spot: Keanu Reeves on his motorcycle ("whoa, dude") and Bruce Springsteen, who's ATM card was eaten by the machine and Ole Brucie had to go into the bank for help!!!!

_________________
Make My Feet Wanna Dance!

Markydefad

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: markydefad on 2002-07-10 00:50 ]</font>

[paul]

I'm with the rest of you. I didn't get bent about the excess lip sync. They weren't the first artist to do this. Anyway I liked some of their songs and willingly took tapes from disgruntled fans.

[sutnop]

On 2002-07-09 23:20, Robbie wrote:
Did anyone else here have this tape/CD also??

Yeah :evil: like my girlfriend maybe has a tape with them..........

[sutnop]

On 2002-07-10 00:33, HustleBaby wrote:
My friend used to have the MV tape but she like everyone else threw it out

I must say I have little respect for people who through their tapes out
especially their ones so devoted fans!?!?!

This is crazy
if you like them before you knew they lip synched then you had been made a fool by the music industries biggest trick/illusion to sell image instead of music.

ANd you should keep the tapes as evidence of this trickery

or just because its a cheesy part of music nostalgia
actually I am gonna put on Girl You know its true Right Now!
Just because its fun to listen to in an ironic sense of way

To add to that the music did more good the harm it rounded off and killed of the decade of commercial pop and Rock. Just saw the movie with KEanu Reeves WIld Stalyins when they want to become a big commerical rock band like Billy Idol or Van Halen.....
that stuff was the worst and Milli Vanilli finished them off

AS far as the German is concerned I regard him as somewhat as a musical renegade genious

The only difference between him and the rest is that he tells us about the scheme the rest take their trickery into their grave....

[sutnop]

The Synthezier hits in the beginning or wonderful

and the anti-synching between those hits and the melody of the instrumental was ground breaking at the time....

TO me these guys are close to heroe's

They really unravelled to people how idotic it was to just follow a music group like a groupie and not really giving a damn about their music just their style.....

They overdosed the Image concept and made the beginning of the 90's almost anti-image music.......

[Blaxman]

I must confess, I have the CD but I dont listen it for ages. It must be under a thick layer of dust.

Peace

[BrunoRepublic]

I can honestly say that I never liked them, in part because their songs were so overplayed here. But I was unimpressed with how quickly people turned on them. I agree that they were likely not the first act to do this, nor were they the last (witness how Martha Wash got screwed over twice in 1990). And as for their fall from grace... the music went from being overplayed to extinct on radio, yet they were still the same songs that nobody seemed to tire of. People screamed "fraud!" as though they had bought the albums for the covers and not for the music on them. As well, the studio outfit that performed the music continued to release the same sort of stuff under the name "The Real Milli Vanilli" but nobody cared.

To me, that just proved the point that a lot of people aren't interested in music if there isn't an appealing image to go along with it. I think the MV incident proved how shallow a lot of people are. They immediately rejected the music, rather than admit that they fell for some very polished marketing... and by rejecting the music because of a tarnished image, they ultimately proved that image really is all that matters sometimes.

About the grammy... the grammy should've gone to Frank Farian, for he was the real group. It amazes me how many people are completely unaware that many pop bands have almost nothing to do with the creation of "their" music. Look on the credits of any New Kids On The Block album, and you can see that Maurice Starr did practically everything. Tying this back in with image... by the early 90s, OMD couldn't get arrested. The last OMD album was regarded by fans as a masterpiece, yet it flopped. So, the fellow behind OMD started up a girl group, writing and producing everything, but putting their names and faces on it. Result: massive success for "Atomic Kitten".

Whenever the subject of MV comes up, I almost always hear someone say "Yeah, they said they'd do an album with their real voices, but we never heard that, did we?". I am always quick to tell them the whole MV story -- how they didn't read their contracts (classic mistake!), how they wanted to come clean, and how Frank pulled the rug out from under them when they demanded to perform on the next MV album. I point out that talented or not, they were never given an opportunity to prove themselves. Nobody would touch them after the scandal.

Kinda strange that I'm defending an act whom I couldn't stand in the first place...

[nrgbeat]

I liked a few of their songs but after a while they all started to sound the same.

[sutnop]

ITs typical Frank Farian Music
play in a compilation of a bunch of other songs then it sounds original appealing and stands out

Play the whole Albumn and even a kid starts thinking it all sounds the same and begins to get boring.....

As for Graham
I agree with the fact that it was probably Frank Farian who set that stuff up at a concert and then A Consipiration Theory of mine

Then I have a question who the **** is OMD
And saying that it was only boybands that used this line of production is quite simply a bit of bull

Because after the Boney M success of the late 70's/early 80's all 80's pop music was produced by people behind the stars...
As I hate much of the 80's music I am not that good with names but for starters I can mention

Quincy Jones
Babyface
Stevie Wonder......
who produced an awful lot of music totally for other artists....
amongs them Michael Jackson
I still scuff at people who try to tell me that thriller was his best albumn and the ultimate albumn in the world

Anyway I am curious to find out what OMD stands for.....

[BrunoRepublic]

On 2002-07-10 12:21, sutnop wrote:
Anyway I am curious to find out what OMD stands for.....

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark

[Robbie]

OMD's "If You Leave" was a great mid-80's tune.

[HustleBaby]

On 2002-07-10 08:30, Graham Start wrote:

Whenever the subject of MV comes up, I almost always hear someone say "Yeah, they said they'd do an album with their real voices, but we never heard that, did we?". I am always quick to tell them the whole MV story -- how they didn't read their contracts (classic mistake!), how they wanted to come clean, and how Frank pulled the rug out from under them when they demanded to perform on the next MV album. I point out that talented or not, they were never given an opportunity to prove themselves. Nobody would touch them after the scandal.

Graham, I remember briefly after the MV scandal, both guys were given a chance to sing (don't remember show) to prove that they're more than just pretty faces. Well they were dogged out by the masses once again because everyone thought they voices were horrible. In my opinion, they appeared to be very nervous and doomed forever regardless of how they sound. Like I mentioned earlier, Ron Pilatius was gorgeous but I also liked the songs. As we all know that was not the case amongst the general audience; everyone fell for the image only. I didn't like how everyone turned against MV as if it was the WORST thing that ever occured in the recording industry! I forgot to add that after the scandal, MV did a Pepsi commercial mocking the scandal. First it shows them singing, then the record starts skipping, and then they end up laughing.

*DISCO DELIGHT*

[Robbie]

HustleBaby--

I remember when VH-1 did a "Behind The Music" on MV they showed footage of Rob and Fab in the recording studio singing. They also showed clips of them appearing on the Arsenio Hall show promoting their album "Rob and Fab". The appearance did nothing to sell that album. I also remember that Pepsi commercial and thought it was a bad move, only because I thought that the "skipping" incident could've happened to anyone. Considering all the turd that hit the fan once the news broke out about the truth of it all (I remember it very well) and the steamrolling incident, I don't think even a "comeback" on a Pepsi commercial could fave them.

I must have been one of the select few who bought the "GYKIT" tape because of the music. I didn't think much of the whole image thing; I just liked the music. Today it brings back memories of my freshman year of high school, when they were very popular.

I didn't truly understand why Rob would want to kill himself. From the show I watched, it seemed that Fab really wanted to sing and they showed footage of him singing with some musicians (I guess) later on. I think Rob was the bolder of the two and just couldn't accept that there was life after the scandal.

[Outsider]

I couldn't stand Milli Vanilli. I thought that they were just awful. And I think the reason their fans turned against them after the truth came out is not because they lip-synched in concert, but because they didn't even sing on their album. That's why the fans felt like they were cheated. If I had been a fan, I probably would have felt the same way. By the way, didn't one on them try to pursue a solo career? That's what I had heard one time. I don't think it was the member who died.