Karaoke Forums

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.

Why should the kids need to be protected.  What's going on that they can't be around?   Is it really neccessary?  (I mean what is going on that's too bad for younger viewers.)    

What if Disneyland started doing what you allow at karaoke?   They would be out of business in a week.   Family oriented entertainment is not wrong in any setting, including bars and restaurants.   Immature audiences is more like it.  Why is it fun for adults to act like children because alcohol is involved?

Personally, as a father of five children under 13 and a KJ, I won't allow my children in a bar.  That makes sure that they aren't exposed to the goings on in a bar.  It is not the job of the karaoke jock to protect other people's children.  If they don't want their kids to hear explicit lyrics or explicit conversations, then don't take the kids to a bar.  What the H-E-double-hockey-sticks are they doing there in the first place.  It is an adult establishment that serves adult beverages.  Find a babysitter or stay home.  I guess the government needs to force the installation of a V-Chip in karaoke machines, too.  

I try to respect everyone as a decent adult.   I also will try to respect your kids.  Just because you may not want to, doesn't mean that i shouldn't try.    That said, i respect them by not having the offensive stuff in the first place.   Then all i have to worry about is the immatures that want to flavor their songs with the F-bomb.

Even that can reflect back on me.

I guess that nobody has ever given you as the KJ, the "look" when someone drops it?  :O   The one the says WTF did they just say and why did you allow it?    Maybe it's only me.

Just out of curiosity, how common is it for minors (under 21) to be allowed in a bar environment in the first place?  I know here minors are not allowed in bars & in restaurants that have bars they have to be out by 10PM.

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Virtually the same law everywhere I have lived (6 states) and usually they have to be out by 9pm.

My rule is no off-color language if kids are present, period. Even if the kids are the ones wanting to do it....

Once again, hash and rehash.  Once again, I ask who said that karaoke only exits at Bars, or that when it is offered by a bar that said bar is a place where cursing is expected or accepted from those who have a mic in their hands?l

I don't really know the specific laws in Florida regading attendance by minors at locations that serve alcohol.   The amount (%) of food served by the establishment could have a bearing on what is allowed here?

Locally, we have "nightclubs" that let in 18 year-old females, but not males, and require that the under-age females wear a wrist-band so that they cannot be "served".

My Sunday show is held in the bar area of a restaurant.  Children are allowed in the bar area during the show (ends 12am) so long as they are not seated at the bar.  I don't know if that's the law, or the owner's policy!

If the song has cussing in it I will allow a person to sing it. I have a patron who loves to sing Ode de car and the crowed loves it. But personally i think it makes a show cheap and less professional. I absolutely don't allow a person to stand on my stage and holler obscenities into the mic. (To a friend or another patron in the bar). I guess it depends on where your playing and the atmosphere. If there is older folks or children there is no place for vulger language in a show.

If you don't list ODE To My Car then they can't sing it.    It's your reputation at stake, over that Piece of Crap Song?????

Kids are allowed in a bar legally until 10 with a parent or guardian.    But i don't believe a restaurant has any rules.

I have jobs that have restaurants connected to the bar only separated by half walls or open walls or big doorways or no walls.    So the kids can hear anything and everything.

One place is a franchise and they have a resposibility to adhear to the corporate policy and to maintain corporate standards.   So i watch when kids are there.  People have complained to corporate because we asked them to move so i could set up my equipment.

I think if it's in a licensed venue (ie, where minors are not allowed and alcohol is served), and sound leakage outside is not an issue, then anything should go as long as it's in the context of the song. If the song has swearing in it, and it's a good song, are you going to stop people singing it just because it has a few rude words? Thats weak in my opinion.

Take "Creep" by Radiohead. It's a brilliant song and really good for karaoke. The F-word is in it 3 times during the pre-choruses. I'll be letting people sing that in my venue where there are no children allowed, and I won't care. It makes the people happy.

Rufus

Not everyone is 21 and thinks F-bombing all night is cool.   Some people actually don't want to hear that kind of language.  :O

It's your show and reputation, so do as you will.

Rufus,
Don't listen to sidewinder (noone here does anyways) and run your show how you want to.

it's NOT your reputation, but the person who chooses to use profanity that is judged when singing. If Sidewinder had his way, every singer would have to ask permission to use the bathroom at his shows!  LMAO  LMAO

...and besides, not many people drop F-bombs "All Night" as he once again, OVERSTATED and OVEREXAGGERATED. The guy needs to get get out more in to the real world!

Creep by radiohead is an awesome song and done frequently at my shows, with and without the profanity- depends on who's singing it- and nobody cares.

I guess it has alot to do with the venue your playing in. I play in a country bar and when the rednecks get to drinking they all curse like drunkin sailors. So when a singer puts up a song with alot of cussing it is exceptable there.... I find that the serious karaoke singers shy away from songs like that. Maybe thats why the guy who comes up to you at the end of the night, spilling beer on your shoes and saying he wants to sing (Vulgar song.. you pick it!) and dosent even have a ticket in his hand!!! It always seems to be the guy who has never been up on-stage unless he has had a dozen couple drinks. "Get ready to catch the mic stand as he makes his way off the stage" Again this depends on the venue but seems to be the rule where i play.

That is the exact place i want to avoid like the plague.

Some on here don't have a reputation to worry about or they just don't care what it is.   There will be singers that will avoid your show if they think there is too much swearing and rowdiness.  Believe it or not.    It's your show.   You are the one that makes the money from it.  If you want those type of jobs.   I will pass on them.

There are still people that want to go out and have fun acting like adults.    And they won't go where the adults act like kids.

Sit at home and watch MTV or VH1 or listen to any radio station for 4 hours straight.

On a piece of paper mark down how many swear words you hear.

Is MTV or VH1 going off the air?   How about those radio stations?   FCC handing out fines to any of them?

Nobody called and complained because there wasn't any off color language, did they?    Are the corporate sponsers pulling their commercials because of the swearing?

Now tell me why your karaoke show will come to an abrupt end if you eliminate the swearing?

How many TV viewers and radio listeners are there all over the country?   More than at your show?     Tens of millions of people watch and listen every day, day after day, year after year.   Basically since radio and TV began.    Still as popular as ever isn't it?

Your show will not die if you eliminate the swearing.    Ask Lonman.     It just keeps on ticking away.    7 days a week.

Here's a free tip for you.     Nobody will miss the swearing.  :shock:  :yes:   Nobody that matters.  LMAO

Sidewhiner, You REALLY need to get a life dude...............so did you really watch 4 hours of each of those programs?  LMAO

...your logic is whack my friend.....  :yes:

13 posts in a thread of 53 posts; that is SW. Do you need to have the last word on all ...

Sidewinder, Not a very good point at all. MTV or VH1  only attract younger groups probably 25 and below in age group. What about the older group 30 & 40 year old? Chances are they don't listen to MTV or VH1 . Would your mother or grandmother enjoy going to a show and listening to someone screeming curse words into a mic? I think alot of people will tolerate it but very few actually enjoy it and that is what this topic is about. Of course everybody is going to have there own opinion on this matter and again depending on what type of people or group your playing for. If you have a bar full of 21yr olds and rap is what the theme is then it will draw a group who enjoy that kind of noise. Middle aged people who went out for a nice dinner and want to finish there evening off with a few coctails and sing a song won't go into an establishment like that.  So in a sence you are pushing people away. I played in a small club last year and a singer got up and sang Crazy Bi**h by Buck Cherry and the owner came up to me in the middle of the song and told me to remove the song from my song books and she never wants to hear that song played at her establishment ever again. The owner was in her mid 50's had she been in her early 20's she probably would have loved it. So age has alot to do with it.  If they listen to MTV or VH1  then yes it is exceptable but start dealing with an older crowd and play that stuff and see how many gig's you will get.