Helen was up in arms about the STP singer lip syncing. Me? Not so much. Rock isn’t a purists art form and simply using back up tracks is a million miles away from cheating. Ashlee Simpson was stigmatized for being the first recent gotcha (don’t start on poor Milli Vanili). Today it would be a joke.
I’ve been to many big concerts and this decade except for old time rockers like Neil Young my bet is EVERYBODY is using back up tapes. Because, really, if you are supplementing every single aspect of your sound, why not supplement the vocals -a hugely important component.
There is no live hip hop without back up tapes, there is no rap at all without prerecorded music even if scratching personalizes it.
This is neither good nor bad.
If you don’t mind a synthesizer sounding like a trombone, why do you mind a singer sounding stronger than he can possibly be without augmentation?
What’s the difference?
It’s another world and music is performed differently, it is silly to complain about it. I am sure people once said recorded music was a cheat, then overdubbing… welcome to the modern world.