Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 27, 1990 TAG: 9004270130
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TRACY WIMMER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Rather - is it live or is it digitally recorded on an Emulator, a keyboard-like device that reproduces musical notes from instruments - and even vocals.
Milli Vanilli will answer that question on Saturday night, when they appear at the Roanoke Civic Center with the all-girl group Seduction and rapper Young MC.
Pop's reigning dynamic duo appeared on the scene last summer with long braids, high fives and catchy dance tunes.
Since then, Milli Vanilli has sold 6 million copies of its debut album, "Girl You Know It's True," and racked up four No. 1 singles. The group's home-video release went double-platinum.
And the twosome of Rob Pilatus, 23, and Fabrice Morvan, 22, recently won this year's Grammy for best new artist. They also swept the American Music Awards with three prizes: best new pop artist, best new rhythm and blues artist and best pop single.
But how much talent is behind the phenomenon?
"What makes Milli Vanilli so attractive," says Arista talent scout Richard Sweret, "is their blend of the latest technological sound - the keyboards, the sampling, all the loops - which are completely at the cutting edge of dance music with a real street and rap sensibility."
But therein lies the problem - the keyboards, the sampling, all the loops. Critics and some fans are left to wonder if either performer has any real talent.
Sure. Lip-sync efforts on TV appearances are standard these days. But some of Milli Vanilli's live concerts are suspect.
A well-documented incident was a Club MTV Tour appearance in Bristol, Conn., last summer.
As Pilatus and Morvan tromped on stage to swelling music, everything seemed normal - major braid swinging, jumping high-fives, crashing into each other bare chest on bare chest.
Then the music stopped.
The two looked at each other, then the crowd, and stormed off stage. The crowd began making not-so-happy noises.
About 20 minutes later, according to reports in the Hartford Courant, as suddenly as it had stopped, the music started again. And the duo's voices also were heard suddenly singing mid-song, even as Rob and Fab were scrambling back on stage to pick up their microphones.
As the concert's production manager Bob Prince recalls it, a glitch in the Emulator had sent Milli Vanilli scurrying.
"What was on their Emulator, I'm not sure," he said. "But it caused them to go off stage, so it must have been pretty important."
At a press conference for the American Music Awards, photographers had to ask who was Rob and who was Fab. But that question didn't bother the performers as much as the ones about their musical ability .
Pilatus, in what Rolling Stone magazine called "his heavily German-accented English," angrily dismissed the charge.
"Musically, we are more talented than any Bob Dylan," Pilatus told Time magazine. "Musically, we are more talented than Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger; his lines are not clear. He don't know how he should produce a sound. I'm the new modern rock 'n' roll. I'm the new Elvis."
Pilatus grew up in Munich. Morvan grew up in Paris. They met at a Los Angeles dance club in the mid-'80s, when they were competing break dancers.
"There was an instant respect and admiration between the two, who were both attracting the attention of the ladies at the time with their made-for-video good looks and European accents," according to an Arista Records press release.
Neither had any musical experience. But in this video age, that hardly mattered.
Back in Munich, Pilatus and Morvan hooked up with Frank Farian, a Euro-pop producer. Using a track written by a guy who still pumps gasoline full time at the Forest Drive Amoco in Annapolis, Md., Milli Vanilli fashioned its first No. 1 hit in West Germany, "Girl You Know It's True."
So here they are - easy to look at but . . . can they sing?
Meet Seduction
Seduction is another of pop's made-for-success stories.
Idalis Leon was tending bar nights at the Red Zone, a trendy club on Manhattan's West Side, and taking acting classes days when disc jockey Robert Clivilles discovered her. He and his partner, songwriter, remixer and record producer David Cole, were looking for a way to break into the pop charts.
And Leon had the look they thought would carry them - if they could build a group around her.
They discovered April Harris, a gospel-trained singer, in New Jersey. And Michelle Visage is a former model who met Clivilles and Cole through Leon. The result: Seduction.
"The key word here, we think, is `seductive' not `sexy,' " Clivilles was quoted as saying in an interview. "We're not going for anything to obvious or crude like lingerie."
"Nothing Matters Without Love," the group's debut album for A&M Records, has thus far produced three Top 40 singles: "True Love," "Two to Make It Right" and "Heartbeat."
Record agents are calling Seduction's music "classic pop for the modern dance age" - a type of Latin hip-hop that has come into its own via groups like Sweet Sensation, the Cover Girls and Lisa Lisa.
Clivilles and Cole own the rights to the group's name. And they, not the performners, hold all contracts with the record company.
Leon, Visage and Harris had an exclusive contract to make eight albums with Clivilles and Cole - but had no contract with the record company. And as of March, the group's members hadn't received any royalties, according to an article in their press packet.
Leon quit the group last month to pursue a solo career. She was replaced by Sinoa Loren, a Berklee School of Music graduate - who apparently also fits into the producers' image of what is seductive.
Visage and Harris remain in the group. Visage is credited as the group's choreographer. Earlier in her career she began appearing on New York local entertainment news programs as one of a troupe of "vogueing" manques - in which the dancers move as if they are models being photographed.
No more pizzas
Young MC, aka Marvin Young, is the closest thing to a self-made performer on the Saturday-night bill.
After graduating from high school in Queens, N.Y., Young moved to Los Angeles in 1982 to pursue a degree in economics at the University of Southern California.
And though he gave up rapping with groups in New York, he continued writing.
In December 1987, Young delivered a Domino's pizza to Matt Dike and Mike Ross, the owners of Delicious Vinyl records. Young took the opportunity to give them a sample of his own rap style, and they signed him immediately, according to Interview magazine.
Young went on to co-write Tone Loc's multiplatinum "Wild Thing," the second biggest pop hit of all time after "We Are the World." He also co-wrote Loc's follow-up hit, "Funky Cold Medina."
"Stone Cold Rhymin'," his debut album, has yielded his biggest hit yet, "Bust a Move."
Young MC won the the 1989 Grammy Award for best rap artist. He also graduated last year with a degree in economics from Southern Cal.
Milli Vanilli performs at the Roanoke Civic Center coliseum on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Young MC and Seduction will open the show. Reserved seats cost $18.50.
Shuttle buses will make round-trips from the parking garage at the corner of First and Church downtown to the civic center from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. and after the show.
For more information, call 981-1201.
MILLI VANILLI 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Roanoke Civic Center coliseum. 981-1201.
by CNB