Karaoke Forums

I support the right of shows to feature songs with profanity. I hope others support my right not to feature them.

I have chosen to get rid of all the songs in my collection that have it (which weren't many, I didn't buy them in the first place). If someone is offended by my lack of offensive songs, too bad.

My service club used to have both the SC8700 and SC8927 disks. There was one guy who would sing only songs from those disks, right in a row. It got plain tiresome. When we did the transition to the new system, we eliminated those disks from the collection, and we got rid of some selected other songs as well. No one misses them except for the occasional person who'll ask for something like "At A Medium Pace" and get told we don't have it (which we don't, we gave away the disks).

I have no problem with folks editing their song books. It's your show and therefore yours to run as you see fit. If someone is worried that a song with cuss words in it is going to run off customers, then why wouldn't they get rid of those songs.

In all my years attending shows as a singer, I never once heard someone say they were leaving a show or wouldn't return to one because the KJ allowed someone to swear.

For instance, Sweet Home Alabama contains not one curse word, however anyone that understands the song is aware of the racial tone it takes with regard to Neil Young's criticism of southern racism. So since that could offend, do you take it out?

"Sweet Home Alabama" was written as an answer to two songs, "Southern Man" and "Alabama" by Neil Young, which dealt with themes of racism and slavery in the American South. "We thought Neil was shooting all the ducks in order to kill one or two," said Ronnie Van Zant at the time.[2] Van Zant's musical response, however, was also controversial, with references to Alabama Governor George Wallace (a noted supporter of segregation) and the Watergate scandal:

In Birmingham, they love the governor (boo boo boo)
Now we all did what we could do
Now Watergate does not bother me
Does your conscience bother you?
Tell me true

In 1975, Van Zant said: "The lyrics about the governor of Alabama were misunderstood. The general public didn't notice the words 'Boo! Boo! Boo!' after that particular line, and the media picked up only on the reference to the people loving the governor."[3] "The line 'We all did what we could do' is sort of ambiguous," Kooper notes "'We tried to get Wallace out of there' is how I always thought of it."[3] Journalist Al Swenson argues that the song is more complex than it is sometimes given credit for, suggesting that it only looks like an endorsement of Wallace.[3] "Wallace and I have very little in common," Van Zant himself said, "I don't like what he says about colored people."[4]

The final line of the song indicates that despite its pro-Southern theme it is firmly against racial discrimination: "Montgomery's got the answer." This is a reference to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which led to a Supreme Court decision declaring Alabama's racial segregation laws for buses unconstitutional.

Imagine how pissed off you'd be if you went to the porn store and accidentally came home with the G-Rated Disney movie "Holes."

Moral of the story, if you go to a family joint to do family karaoke, you want the KJ to do family karaoke. If you go the local hip-hop dive to tear s*** up (figuratively) on the karaoke stage, then you want the KJ to let you tear s*** up (figuratively).

I do NOT edit my books

Only reason I edit my books is because i'm there 7 nights. No point in listing songs that the bar disallows only to explain to people why they cannot sing those songs night after night.

There is a time and a place.....simple as that. There are several times, when I've done a song or one of my partners have ad-libbed a part of a song where it wasn't the right time or place. The very few times that's happened, I've thought..that wasn't such a good idea, I now make an extra effort to make sure it will be accepted by the majority. I do NOT edit my books, I do however NOT let certain songs to be done at certain gigs. I do NOT feel bad about it either....99.999% of the people understand and pick something else with no fuss. Time & Place...MrD

Who would you rather lose, him or granny as a customer?

Oh, and just to prove my point based on that last post:

Teh album that contained "Closer" by NIN sold 10.5 million copies, according to RIAA. It is the 71st best selling album of all time.

By comparison, here are some other karaoke staples (by album sales) that it outsold:

Love Shack - 10 million
Picture - 10.2 million
Family Tradition - 7.5 million
Before He Cheats - 6 million
Margaritaville - 4 million
Goodbye Earl - 10 million
Like a Virgin - 21 million

I'd say there is CERTAINLY a market for those types of songs. You just aren't in that particular market