Karaoke Forums

I like to play filler music between singers. It's a bit of a dive bar but everyone is friendly. Upbeat fun Country music, Texas Blues Stevie Ray Vaughn type stuff, and Southern Rock are what works best there. However, I'd like to come up with a list of song suggestions on what y'all think would be great filler songs between singers to help keep things lively. The more the merrier.

If I was going to use filler music in that situation I would use rockabilly, fit's into the general atmosphere without covering the songs that will be sung.

That's a good suggestion VK. It stinks when a filler song comes on and everyone starts dancing and singing along, but then you have to kill it, and start the karaoke version because some decided right then, that they need to sing that song.
I have different filler playlists for every venue, and it takes time to sort out great, feel good music that isn't likely to be sung.

Filler music can give singers some ideas about what to sing. Since they are only played for a short time between singers, it's not a big deal if someone wants to sing it. In fact, I've taken the idea from Letitrip, and now ONLY have songs for filler that I also have for karaoke. It's been a good thing. However, if you're playing full songs in between for whatever reason, it might not work for you.

Filler music can also backfire on you. I try to avoid shows that play songs in between every singer. It wastes half the night away with filler music. Instead of 60 songs getting sung in a show; you only hear 30 songs over 4 or 5 hours. Not a show for me at all.

I could see that if you are playing a complete song between each singer. As the karaoke song fades down, I fade up filler music and call up the next singer and depending on how long it takes the next singer to get on stage, that is all of the music that is heard, just fills the "dead" air and never as loud as the karaoke music. If ist happens to be a slow night, I might let the whole song play to spread out the singers but lately I haven't had to do that.

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Not if the filler is just used what it is intended for, to 'fill' the dead air while the next singer is coming to the stage. Fill music is never supposed to be played entirely, probably no more than 30 seconds at the max if someone called isn't paying attention.

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Got internet? Kids today love dubstep. I just tune in dubstep.fm on shoutcast for my fill music, drives them crazy.

PLAY INSTRUMENTALS!

Either find instrumental UPBEAT versions of songs or EDIT a karaoke track and play those throughout! Gives people an IDEA of what to sing WITHOUT cutting off a song they start singing or dancing to!

I just play anything that is set up on my dj system from the 50's to today. More often than not someone hears a song they didn't know who did it or what it was called & asked me and they are now singing it - provided I have it and if not, i'll try to get it.

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I generally use modern rock / alternative, or Dance / Older top 40 hits.

If you play current hits people want you to keep the whole song going. I always try to play stuff people remember but not stuff that will get people dancing unless I'm ready for a dance break.

Most recently i have been quite busy and the next singer has a microphone and there is no pause inbetween singers I go from one song to the next.

OK, it appears that Bruce is my kind of singer, I find there is really no need for filler music, simply call the next singer up on the outro of one song and fade into the next song. On songs that you know have a long intro ie. Hotel Califorina etc. you can fade out of the previous song and call the singer up on the intro of their song.

Get more singers/songs into the night and still not have dead air, also there are times when a pregnant pause (dead air) can be used effectively.

In my opinion, filler music.. that is, the music you play while you're waiting for the next singer to walk up, or the music you play while you make announcements, should NEVER BE A SINGABLE/DANCEABLE SONG.

I use upbeat game show music, and some TV theme music.. stuff with no words.

It continues the shows forward momentum without having to 'cut it off' when people get into it.

Stuff on my 'voiceover track' playlist include, Sandford & Son theme, Price Is Right Theme.. $25,000 Pyramid theme.. Walter Murphy's A Fifth of Beethoven.. the Night Court theme.. stuff like that.

It's upbeat, familiar, but not anything anyone is going to say, "Ahh!! Don't cut it off!" or get up and start dancing to.. or want to run up to a mic and start singing along with right about the time the next singer makes his or her way up to the mic.

My 'filler' resides on a playlist set to repeat on my iPod, running through a compressor set for 'auto ducking' and then run into the board.

When the current singer finishes, I simply un=mute that channel on the board and away we go.. just like a 'real' radio DJ.. I can make announcements for upcoming events at the bar, mention drink specials, remind everyone to tip the bar staff, etc while the next singer makes their way up to the stage.. many times running the 'filler' music right up until the first notes of the next singers song.

I went to a new show Friday night. It started at 9PM. I got there around 10PM and the KJ was in the process of trying to get someone from the crowd to put in a song. I looked through his book very quickly and handed the guy a slip. He asked if I was ready to sing RIGHT NOW and I said yes. he faded out his filler music and cued up my song. The place had a pretty decent crowd and they responded very well at the end of my song. Since I was the only singer, the KJ went back to playing "dance music" in an effort to get people to dance. Nobody was dancing. I gave the KJ 3 more song slips. He played 2 more "filler"dance songs before calling me up to sing again. There seemed to be quite a bit of applause once again as I made my way back to my seat. As I was perusing through the song book, the KJ kept repeating that he needed some singers to put up some songs. He already had 2 songs of mine on his table but he proceeded to play "filler" music for close to 30 minutes. He played 7 songs in a row...all extended dance remixes of todays most popular songs.....that no one was paying attention to. Finally, the KJ gets someone, who just showed up, to hand in a song slip. He finally gets back to karaoke and calls up the person who just showed up. The bar manager comes over to me and pays me a compliment on my singing and asks why I haven't sung any more since my first 2 songs so I tell her that it is because the KJ has decided that I must have sung enough and he's waiting for "new" singers before he gets back to karaoke. She tells me that I should say something to the KJ to find out what the problem is and I told her that it is not my job to confront the man, since I have no intention of ever coming back to that location ever again and that I can totally understand why there are no regular singers at this particular bar.

As I was leaving, I mentioned to the KJ that he could dispose of my song slips and he acted all surprised and said....ARE YOU LEAVING ALREADY???.... to which I replied to him that I didn't go to karaoke to listen to him play 7 songs in a row while waiting to sing again and he told me that it wasn't my private show. Now, I didn't mind that he played a song or two in between letting me sing but I thought 7 songs was way too many songs to play and after waiting about a half hour; he called someone up to sing who had just walked in the door.

I told another KJ that I know that he should go to that location to try and offer his services. It's a shame because the place had a nice appreciative crowd but the KJ makes no effort to please that crowd. He plays dance music that they ignore and he ignores a singer that the crowd seems to be enjoying.....and he wonders why there are no "serious" singers at his show.

I left that bar and went to another karaoke place that had about a dozen singers in the rotation, which I enjoyed listening to all night long. I only got to sing once every hour or so but at least I felt that I was at a karaoke bar and not a dance club where the DJ felt that karaoke was something that he felt forced to provide against his will.
FILLER MUSIC INDEED!!!

That only works when there is 'outro' time left on a song - which if there is some time left, sometimes I will announce the next singer over it. Many songs however have a cold ending and no outro to work with. I've just got into the habit of fading the playing song out as soon as the singer is done, fade up fill, call next singer (if they aren't already on their way from the on screen cue) then fade out fill & start their song. Sometimes the fill is only on for a matter of 5 seconds - but still better than listening to 5 seconds of dead air time.

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For the record; I don't have a problem with filler music for the short time it takes a singer to get to the stage. It is better than dead air.

Lonnie,

Agreed there are some songs that end abruptly, there is still the matter of intros on the next song also any KJ can motor mouth between the songs while a singer is coming up no real dead air. Also you can loop a short piece of the intro of a song which will still be a music bed if need be.

Bruce,

I wish you were closer to VB, I think you would like two of my shows "no filler music" no "dance sets" when the show starts it is all karaoke all the time, if I have one or two singers and they have put in multiple songs they will be singing until someone else puts in a song, if no one has a song in then Lord help them the will have to listen to me until someone does put in a song. But there is a negative to that as well, I can only remember two nights like that in five years, normally by the time I get setup there are 30 people already on the list.

Again that only works provided the singer being called is on their way. It would be far worse to start the next song and not have the singer come up on time only to have the kj re-start the song wasting far more time than just a simple fade out of a fill song. Or they want to change their song at the last minute (which I don't have any issues with) to reflect the crowd better or to change the direction of the music flow. Also many songs only give 2-4 beat intros - some are almost immediate as well.

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Devil's advocate here for a second - so Fri night I had a smaller than usual rotation, though the place was packed. (Just not packed with singers.) As I'm working into the third rotation, since people were dancing to the singer's songs, I put on some deadly filler music that I thought everyone would dance to - sure enough, everyone jumped up and danced. Again, I reiterate as I do every time in this particular type of thread - if you are all business about moving your rotation quickly, no one notices that it might take an hour to get up and sing again. I think we have to be careful not to assume that every show is the same, that no one wants to dance, etc. etc. A lot of my singers all jump up and dance if I have read the room correctly...doesn't work every week, but if even the nonsingers are sitting there paying for drinks all night, do they not deserve an opportunity to "have it their way" and dance to a non-karaoke song? (Devil's advocate, remember)

Lonnie,

If I see the singer is on his/her way and is simply held up by the crowd I loop the intro, If I don't see them on the way I fade out of that song and move on to the next singer, if a singer is in the bathroom I move on to the next singer with four TVs showing the singer line up there really isn't any excuse.

The worst ones who I simply push down three singers, are the ones who walk out the door to smoke when they are next in line.

When you have 40 or more people on the list to sing before you are even into the first half hour of a show you do what you can to make it transition as fast as possible.

Just a question but why would it "waste" any more time to restart a song than it would to fade out of one into filler and then fade into the next song? Wouldn't it still be the same amount of time be it dead air, filler music or a restart?

The one thing I noticed when I was doing filler music it generally takes a singer a lot longer to reach the stage when you are playing a filler song than it does when their song is already starting, when running filler music I saw that on average it took about 40 seconds to 1 1/2 minutes for a singer to get to the stage when they were called, fading from one song to the next it takes 5 seconds or less for them to be on the mic, over a four hour period that means 4 to 5 more songs someone is able to sing.

Generally I don't do restarts at my show unless I see that a singer is really trying to get to the stage, if they are stopping to talk to this or that person on their way up they will sing from whereever the song is when they get to the mic. A restart consist of starting not at the beginning of the intro it starts 1 beat before the lyrics.

That of course depends on the shows and the speed that I normally run them.