Do you remember the music duo Milli Vanilli? They won a Grammy Award in 1990 for Best New Artist. Their massive hit song was titled "Girl You Know It's True." That song spurred sales of over 10 million albums.
Their success and fame were short-lived when it was discovered that they did not sing any of the songs on the album. All of the songs were actually sung by other folks and made to appear that Milli Vanilli sang the songs. They returned the Grammy and were basically kicked out of the music business and made the butt of countless jokes.
Fast forward 30 years and some of the most successful and famous people in the world lip sync for a living. The social media platforms of TikTok, YouTube and Instagram are filled with people mouthing the lyrics to songs or the monologue of jokes or the scene of a movie.
A TikToker named Bella Poarch made a video lip-syncing another person's song. This video has been viewed over 650 million times and has over 53 million likes. This video is the most viewed TikTok ever created.
It is not something that is hidden or occurs in secret. It was known from the outset that Bella was lip-syncing. Bella is not shamed or ridiculed for this video. It is celebrated as an amazing piece of art.
I must admit I do not understand this trend in our society. When did it become OK to take someone else's creation and pretend you are performing it?
When did it become cool to steal and perpetrate a fraud in plain sight?
Who am I to try to buck what the world deems popular? I think I will begin to put my name on columns written by Ernie Pyle or Mike Royko or Jimmy Breslin. These are giants in the newspaper industry and I am not even in their universe talent-wise. However, with today's standard of what is acceptable I can just slap my name on their work and get the accolades for it.
Maybe I could talk the radio station into giving me a show and all I would have to do is play old tapes of Paul Harvey. I would become hugely popular and get rave reviews for my wit and amazing storytelling ability. Who cares if I did not really create it?
We have got to do better than this, y'all. There are so many creative people in the world. Let's celebrate them and stop giving fame, money and attention to these people who pretend to be something they are not.
Oscar Wilde said, "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness."
Let us stop celebrating the mediocre and start actually paying the great. How much more would the original artist make if they got the views and clicks that the imitators get?
The original artist of Bella Poarch's breakout video song is ironically enough named Millie B. Eerily similar to Milli Vanilli but she actually has talent.
Celebrate creativity not chicanery. Pay producers not pretenders. Award the architect not the artifice.
Of course, deception has been with us for centuries. In researching this column, I found out that Oscar Wilde was not the originator of the Imitation saying. The phrase was originally used during the 19th century in Charles Caleb Colton's work, "Lacon: or Many Things in Few Words."
If he was around today, I am sure Oscar would be a big hit on TikTok.