Karaoke Forums

One of my three venues prohibits the F-word. At the other two, anything goes. Prohibiting certain language is, I believe, the prerogative of the bar owner. Prohibiting certain genres of music (hip-hop, metal, etc.) I won't stand for. Whenever I've started a new gig, one of the first things I ask is if they allow cursing, and if so, to what extent. I don't alter my books, but I usually know enough about the music to let singers know if there's a song they can't sing because of the language.

I even sang "Ode To My Car" at the language-controlled venue once. I just said a loud "BEEP" every time there was a cuss word. Since I use the SC version, the profanity doesn't show up on the TV screen. I wouldn't advise any of my singers to do this though. People who are drinking sometimes aren't the best at censoring themselves .

Karen, I completely agree with your thinking.
Cater to ALL people with finesse and respect, set the tone for any potential troublemakers, but understand there's alcohol involved and that you are being watched by everyone in the room in how you treat other human beings. Carry yourself not only as a professional, but as a caring person that understands that noone's perfect, and most singers are just trying to have fun!

Well you prohibit the F-word songs, you pretty much limit alot from these genres as well - especially the hip hop so in a sense it is taking care of itself.  But I agree with you for the most part on specific genres.

_________________
LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

What benefits are gained by allowing swearing at your show?

Fully depends on the bar & the crowd.  I have worked some clubs successfully without any problems that haven't had any restrictions.

_________________
LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

What benefits are gained by allowing swearing at your show?

No benefit of course.  Kind of a silly question.   Apparently there is a major philosophy difference here: I guess I don't think I should be "allowing" or "not allowing" anything - If the atmosphere is one where people don't take themselves so seriously that they plug their ears and run at the sound of a cuss word, it's a matter of people singing a song that has off-color language in it...that's all it is. Not a personal affront....Not a reason to start a war .... and not a reason to send them running to the next location to sing.


PS: I never had to spank my kids, either!

K

Some people do flee.

I think too much is being made of this - Seldom are these songs sung at least at our shows...and I can honestly say no one has ever said word one to me about it ... and certainly no one has ever left because of it.  More often than not, "Oh, what an idiot so-and-so is that they have to sing that song..." End of story.  LIke any sort of questionably social acceptable behavior...not like we aren't bombarded with it everywhere. Not a new and unusual thing to hear cussing - at least if you go anywhere but church.

k

Karen I agree These super sensitive victums need get a life and learn how to make it on their own and quit depending upon laws and handouts. Bars are  adult hangouts.One time on shore patrol in Turkey I looked into an opium den. I have been in the meanest port bars in the world. When you are sitting at my mothers table you better have your hat off and watch your mouth. If she is sitting on a bar stool you have more liberties but extensive profane language will result in an (@$%&#!) kicking. Believe me I have seen worse things in bars other than bad language. A bar is a bar is a bar. As a kid I grew up in bars and that's where I learned about real life not what they are brainwashing them with now. Give me a another f#$$#$# beer... Please..

_________________
Join The Karaokle Singers Social Network. Upload Your Music!!

You make it sound normal and exceptable.   Is that how it is at you house and your daytime job?    Should everyone expect it around you and your friends?     Do you hear it at the bank and the doctors office?    Grocery store?    Daycare?

Where exactly is it so normal?     Is it just your town?

Well it is rather normal though I do not find it pleasant to listen to...and I'm certainly not going to have a conversation with someone who talks like that...and I'm not going to applaud them if they sing a song full of gratuitous cussing...But it is marginally societally acceptable. Have you listened to rock videos lately? R&B? Hip Hop?

Listen - I'll say this one more time - I don't like it. I never have. I have more than once been known to snap at a kid that they make vocabulary books if their speech is limited to four-letter words. But I am also not so naive and sheltered to believe that my own intolerance of it will change anything. People in general are NUMB to this. When I was a kid, if you used that kind of language around an adult, you could expect a backhand across the head. It just isn't that way anymore. Sad but true.

If I was going to pick up a cause to really harangue the world about, it wouldn't be cussing in bars. Geesh. That's why adults go to bars. No one standing over their shoulder, tsk'ing and shaking their finger.  Everything is relative - there are probably bars where people can go and NEVER hear cussing. Not sure where that might be...but for those who are ultra sensitive about it, I'm sure they'll keep looking until they find one.

You might say I am a pragmatist ... I am practical about things in general ... I don't bash my head against the wall over societal ills.

Hardly worth the keystrokes it takes to reiterate all this again. Suffice it to say the odd cuss word will be heard at my show...because someone wrote a song that made a lot of money, and had a lot of exposure, and others want to share in it. Woohooo....

K

Sw sounds like you don't get out of the house much. I think you run your show out of your basement in the stix where you never hear hip hop songs or modern rock songs with profane language.
You do sound like a condescending child in the majority of your posts. I'm gonna save myself some time and not to respond to your silly questions and posts very often anymore. You remind me too much of my 22 year old deejay employee years ago that had his head stuck in the sand- he lasted 2 months becasue he drove the other employees crazy with his narcissistic point of view and blatant ego. Turns out he knew nothing......

Perhaps it was you?? Where were you in '95?

No one is able to stop it...however, I think, in general, it casts a poor reflection on the singer.  Where is the class in using bad language?

I agree - it makes the singer look immature and childish but I'm sure not going to be able to protect them from themselves, am I?  If they persist in doing it, it is they that look foolish.

K

I can understand if some partying young adults basically "crash" a karaoke room and offend everyone with their mouths why you guys would be upset about it.

That's not what I'm doing though. I started out in their room. It was pretty slow at first, but if it was anything before karaoke it was a young people's hangout. Older adults who are comfortable with it have basically been crashing their room ever since.

My decision to feature contemporary material meant I had to also accept a certain kind of language at times. It's the same as going to an R movie. It doesn't have to dominate, it may sometimes, but it's not real if it's not there.  

The young adults in my room aren't rowdy college students out to cause trouble and stir things up. They are mostly employed in low level jobs with little or no upward mobility, struggling to make rent, trying to deal with rising gas and food costs, and slowly realizing that they probably aren't going to be as well off as their parents. If they want to insert the F word for emphasis here and there in their casual speech it's OK by me.

I've been in the local Eagles lodge at times. There is supposed to be no swearing at all in there, but up at their bar it's common to hear the name of God taken in vain by the regulars of the lodge all the time. That kind of swearing does make me wince. But if anyone were to utter the F word in their Lodge they'd probably be shown the door.

Getting back to karaoke... I have The Pussycat Song and The Rodeo Song, but they have never been done in my room. I think it's kind of like watching a Vegas comic from the 1970s... off-color material of another generation to these guys.

Even my most explicit song, F Her Gently, is not done that much anymore, although I think it showed up on a playlist I put up. It's been done so much that it's not the attention-grabber it used to be. And the smart singers have figured it out. At about a minute and a half it's one of the shortest songs in the book. They just get started and it's over. Then they may have to wait for up to a hour to sing something of substance.

 :worship: And it casts the same shadow on your show.   And you and the bar you're in.

There can and will not be a disconnect between all of them.   As one gets looked upon so do the rest.    The bar, you, your show and your singers are all at the same place at the same time.   That makes you all bound in to the same mold.  This is the preception and how you will all be seen.

Well I'll dispute that for sure. I have a very loyal and extended following of people, from 8 year old little girls who love to sing Britney Spears, to the old fellow who sings Frank, to the middle-aged women who sing Martina McBride....

They all smile when they see me, they compliment me and tip me for a job well done, they comment on the fact that they never receive such fine treatment anywhere else.  The kids enjoy us because even though we're in our 50s, we're the furthest from stodgy they've ever seen.

My world is very large - maybe that's the difference. I don't worry that someone singing an off-color song once in a blue moon at one of my shows is going to reflect badly on me or the bar.

Maybe us west coasties are a little more progressive? Or a little more tolerant?  Don't know for sure because I don't know where you are, SW. Feel badly for you, though, if people would let their opinions of you be formed solely by what someone else does in a public place. LIVE AND LET LIVE I say. We're all responsible for our own behavior, singers and hosts alike.

k

I would expect rowdniess and swearing and any other bad behavior at a biker bar.  But not at a place that caters to regular people.


So your 8 year olds are subjected to the adult bad behavior?   It can't be both ways.  It's a family bar or a biker dive.

Neither, actually, and no the 8-year-olds aren't subjected to that... Good grief.  I've worked in biker bars - in fact, I have been a biker for years.  I've worked kids shows, I've worked sophisticated adult shows ... I am somehow able to morph myself into all these roles without much of a problem. There are many, many, many different venues in our area that do karaoke - not just dives.  Lordy...

Fact is most adults won't tolerate a kids' show. And in WA State, kids have to be out when the entertainment starts ... pretty strict laws about exposing children to adult behavior.

My point was that with all the different styles of shows I do, and in the different venues I do them, my reputation is impeccable. Funny, nobody calls me 'that dirty old lady karaoke host.'  ... well not yet anyway...

k

not only am i happy to play the pussycat song, My co host  often sings the "hows your whole (family)" song. another that is either raunchy or completely clean, depending on how you listen to it. We also do the dirty version of summer nights quite often..even people in there 70s and 80s  get a huge laugh out of it. its fun, and even tho the language is strong it is not really offensive.

as for general swearing either in or out of a song, i normaly let it slide. I do not do many shows in bars where you would take your mom, but it seems that in places where you would it doesnt really happen.  in the bars where the crowd is mostly 30 and under it seems accepted.

_________________
the voices arent real, but they have some good ideas