I think many of you in the 'entertainer at any cost' camp is ignoring the fact that most people DO want to be entertained by a 'real' musician. Let's face it, if mere 'entertainment' with no skill on the part of the 'entertainer' other than amusing the audience WERE what people really want, there would be no live music at all. Anywhere...

But the live music scene is alive and thriving. The trouble is that technology exists, affordably now, that it is practical to 'fake' your way through a gig and the audience (at least those without the skills to recognize faking when they see it) don't know they are being cheated.

But ask anyone of them whether they came out to see a musician, or somebody pretending to be a musician, and most of them will say they came to see musicians. So the 'cheating' aspect of it comes from counterfeiting what they actually want. BUT NOT INFORMING THEM.

You will NEVER see an 'entertainer' step away from his faking and go 'OK, folks, I'm sorry, you all thought I was playing this stuff, but in truth, it's all just karaoke'. People understand the difference between real music and fakery. It is just that it is getting harder and harder to spot.

And you can't say 'well, karaoke is popular, so what difference is this?'. The whole point of karaoke is that there IS no trickery, the machine is out from behind the curtain, so to speak. There is no attempt made to fool the audience that this is REAL musicians, backing them up. And secondly, the important thing about karaoke is that it is an audience 'participation' entertainment, NOT going out to see a 'performer'... The performer is THEM, or their friends, or some drunk guy crying his way through 'Feelings'! It's not supposed to be some paid entertainer, pretending to play the backing. It's a social event, not a concert event.

The minute you restrict the singing to just yourself, if your audience sees you playing, they expect that it IS you that is playing. And if it isn't, that misrepresentation. Maybe not criminal, but certainly a little dishonest. Just remember how they pilloried poor Minni Vanilli after it was found out they weren't actually singing any of their hits...

Don't try to fool yourself the audience doesn't care....