Before I hit the awkward, self-conscious teenage phase of my life I used to spend a lot of my spare time after school lip-synching and dancing to songs in front of a mirror. I can’t believe I am actually admitting this on a widely read blog but, there you go. This particular past time of mine has always given me a sweet spot for the many lip-synching vodcasts found on the internet (Numa Numa being one of the most famous). There’s just something about getting together with a bunch of friends and making a fool of yourself in front of a camera. Times have certainly changed. Whereas I used to do this in front of an imaginary audience, teens now have the technology at their fingertips to actually make their own lip-synching video and publish it for view on the web. I think such an activity would make a really neat teen program. I’m sure many teenagers find themselves in the same boat I was in growing up. I have very little musical talent, so lip-synching was one of the few ways I could actually express myself through music. Whether they want to take it seriously or just have fun with it, lip-sychning can provide a way for teens to relate to music in a creative way.

A lip-synching program would probably be best done in the form of a contest. I’m not sure if other high schools did this, but ours used to have yearly lip-synching contests where each grade was marked on performance, creativity, costumes, style, etc. One of my favorite memories of this was when my class performed the song Step by Step by the New Kids on the Block. The only way we could convince five boys to stand up in front of an audience and pretend to be Donnie, Danny, Jordan, Jon and Joey was if we promised to mock the group. So, in the middle of the performance one of the guys pulled out a massive can of hairspray and started primping himself. However, other contenders in the contest would take things much more seriously and choose songs that would allow them to make a statement. The winner of the contest that year was actually the freshman class who did a take on Pink Floyd’s, The Wall. They put a tremendous amount of effort into their performance, had wonderful props and costumes.

Hosting a lip-synching vodcast program at a library would allow teens to experience music in a creative, fun way through the use of technology, while also encouraging positive socialization.