YMMV / Milli Vanilli

• Awesome Music:
  • Admit it, "Girl You Know It's True," "Blame It On The Rain" and "Baby Don't Forget My Number" are still glorious ear worms.
  • The single version of "Girl You Know It's True" that appears on All or Nothing especially.
• Chorus-Only Song: Pretty much all their hits.
• Common Knowledge: Two popular misconceptions surround the circumstances behind the lip-syncing scandal:
  • Many people claim that the duo were exposed by the infamous track-skipping incident in July 1989. While it did draw tons of suspicion, it wasn't considered definitive proof, as plenty of other dance-pop and electronic acts were known for using guide vocals for portions of their concerts so that they wouldn't sound out of breath when singing and dancing simultaneously. It wasn't until November 1990, when Frank Farian confessed to the Los Angeles Times that Morvan and Pilatus never put a single breath to tape, that the lid blew open.
  • The track-skipping incident is often depicted as opening the eyes of a deceived public for the first time, when in actuality there'd been suspicions about Morvan and Pilatus well before then. It certainly intensified people's doubts, but as soon as the band's US breakthrough, people were already raising questions about how Morvan and Pilatus had American accents when they sang but thick German accents when they actually spoke.
• Covered Up:
  • In all the kerfuffle, many people don't realize that "Girl You Know It's True" is actually a cover, originally by 80s pop band Numarx.
  • "Tell Me Where It Hurts" by The Real Milli Vanilli is better known in the Philippines for its cover by the acoustic band MYMP.
• Critical Backlash: Their music is still not considered unfairly maligned by any means, but retrospective listeners too young to have been there for the lip-syncing scandal and who grew up in an era that was kinder to bubblegum pop (and who've been privy to much worse crimes that bigger pop star have gotten away with) may have a hard time understanding why music this inoffensive and a scandal so harmless resulted in Milli Vanilli becoming a dirty word for twenty years.
• Funny Moments:
  • This In Living Color! skit. And this was before the scandal broke, so it even leans toward Hilarious in Hindsight.
    "So act now, because we are almost out of style!!!"
    • The kicker to that particular skit? Rob and Fab themselves stumbled upon it during a party, and realized that the clock was ticking for them from that point on.
  • While not intentional on their part, Rob and Fab trying to prove they can actually sing at a 1991 press conference (This was before they started taking actual vocal lessons) is a sight to behold.
  • The infamous Broken Record moment during that one concert.
• Harsher in Hindsight: "Girl, I'm Gonna Miss You", while a Tear Jerker in its own right, is made all the more heart-wrenching in the wake of Milli Vanilli's Role-Ending Misdemeanor. Even the lyrics are prophetic of how (former) fans would feel about the band following the scandal.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: In addition to the In Living Color! sketch above, there's also what was merely a trivia tidbit at the time - Rob and Fab were initially denied entry into the 1990 Grammy ceremony... under false pretenses. While at the time it was because they thought the tickets were counterfeit, it was rather prescient just a few months later.
• Hollywood Homely: The whole reason Rob and Fab were hired to lip-sync was that Farian felt the real singers, while by no means unattractive, weren't photogenic enough.
• Memetic Mutation: The infamous skipping recording. "Girl you know it's—girl you know it's—girl you know it's—"
• Mis-blamed: Granted, fame went to their heads, but the boys got a hell of a lot of heat considering that they were little more than employees and figureheads and had little, if any, say in the creative process. It's worth mentioning that returning the Grammy awards was their idea, but an interview with Frank Farian claiming that it was forced upon them was published before they could put their two cents in, making it seem like a Suspiciously Specific Denial.
• Narm: The opening skit in "Girl You Know It's True" is cheesier than a fondue party. And in general, those goofy, awkward dance moves of theirs.
• Narm Charm: Most anyone who still listens to them today probably does it for this reason. Perhaps Stephen Thomas Erlewine from Allmusic.com summed it up best in his "Girl You Know It's True" review:
  "This isn't just music that's all surface, this is music that gives the impression of having a surface, then not delivering on that. It's thin as a ribbon, the beats are fairly clunky, the hooks are huge and stupid (apart from Diane Warren's "Blame It on the Rain," which is the only classically constructed song on the album), and, ultimately, really dorky. But what makes it fascinating is that it's unrestrained, unhinged dorkiness, music that is completely awkward and sort of fun and memorable because of it."
• Overshadowed by Controversy: And then some. While they were at least a little unpopular beforehand thanks to their sugary lyrics and cheesy tunes, the lip-syncing scandal seemingly validated the backlash which had already been bubbling under the surface for a while until it was all they were known for, quickly becoming the standard by which all "lip-syncing scandals" were measured. They infamously are the only music act to return their Grammy awards because of it (sparking its own controversy when, after no one else wanted to accept it in their place, it became the only year the "Best New Artist" category had no official winner). It wasn't just that they were the butt of a huge joke, they were the victims of perpetual public shaming! Fab wouldn't leave his house during daylight for years because he was afraid of being recognized and taunted, and Rob's Sanity Slippage was at least partially due to how quickly it all got to him.
• Sampled Up: "Ashley's Roachclip" by the Soul Searchers. Or rather this breakbeat that was cut from it. Eric B. & Rakim used it first on "Paid in Full", but it was Milli Vanilli who sampled it up to the degree that some believe this beat was created for "Girl You Know It's True".
• Second Album Syndrome: For both the boys and the real band; whichever album you consider the real second album.
• Signature Scene: The "Girl you know it's--Girl you know it's--Girl you know it's..." It should be noted, though, that surviving member Fab has said that the track skipping actually occurred earlier in the group's U.S. run and while embarrassing, was not in fact the career-killing eye-opener that everyone says it was. However, at the time, this incident perhaps may have served as an example of Hilarious in Hindsight, once the deception came to light.
• Signature Song: "Girl You Know It's True."
• So Okay, It's Average: Once you get past the furor over its production, the music itself is fairly competent if rather bland late-eighties dance-pop.
• Sweetness Aversion: Much of their brief discography is just cheesy love songs set to then-state-of-the-art dance-pop. As mentioned above, it was that very over-slickness that caused their popularity to implode as badly as it did.
• Vindicated by History: For Rob and Fab personally. Pop music lovers, as we all know, have grown more skeptical with time. So it isn't really a surprise that Rob Pilatus and Fabrice Morvan have slowly but surely come to be viewed in a more sympathetic light these days, with more and more people seeing them as victims of the industry, rather than con artists. And of course, thanks to the internet, the finer details are more easily accessible.

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