What does it mean when a singing voice is detached from an originating
body through recording? And how does this affect consumers of recorded
song? This book examines the practice of lipsynching to pre-recorded
song in both professional and vernacular contexts, covering over a
century of diverse artistic practices from early cinema through to the
current popularity of self-produced internet lipsynching videos. It
examines the ways in which we listen to, respond to, and use recorded
music, not only as a commodity to be consumed but as a
culturally-sophisticated and complex means of identification, a site of
projection, introjection, and habitation, and, through this, a means of
personal and collective creativity.