Karaoke Forums

What bad?  :whistle:   I am curious, would he sing the last hour even IF the customers did not want to sing but wanted to hear & was requesting regular dance music.  Since this goes against his personal belief of pure karaoke & that no customer even if it was the majority will dictate how he runs his show meaning no regular music...ever!

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[shadow=deepskyblue]I'm impressed, I've never met such a small mind inside such a big head before.[/shadow]

ttowner.....   <sarcasim> Yeah, from now on I WILL sing for the rest of the night.  Gotta e PURE Karaoke ALL the time... I sure wouldn't want the bar  patrons happy  :rotflmao:

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Will sing or fish for food!!I'm not quite right!!

HUH??? There was karaoke? How come I didnt get to sing??//  LMAO  LOL  LOL

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I am pretty sure I saw you in the middle of the dance floor getting jiggy with about 6 hot babes!!!  LOL

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Will sing or fish for food!!I'm not quite right!!

Well that would be pretty bad then if the dance floor was packed with the people not singing.  May as well give it up, you can no longer have the ability to entertain a crowd!

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[shadow=deepskyblue]I'm impressed, I've never met such a small mind inside such a big head before.[/shadow]

You are cracking me up!!!

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Will sing or fish for food!!I'm not quite right!!

I guess I've never ran into that problem.  There are ALWAYS people that want to sing.  If I was told that they were tired of singing, then I'd have to put some money in the jukebox or play karaoke with noone singing, since I invest $0 in DJ music.  I could play the Windows default sounds, or crank the mics up for a little ear piercing feedback delight.  

I'm glad I live here; there is never a shortage of people that want to drink and sing.    

I would sing or pack up (just kidding)  :shock:  I'm singing.  :O   I carry NO dance or regular CDs of any kind.  Karaoke means karaoke.  I don't know what the definition of karaoke is in the Northwest or Canada.  But the in rest of the USA karaoke means singing.

[quote="THEKaraokeGuy @ Wed Apr 23, 2008 5:33 pm"]I guess I've never ran into that problem.  There are ALWAYS people that want to sing.  If I was told that they were tired of singing, then I'd have to put some money in the jukebox or play karaoke with noone singing, since I invest $0 in DJ music.  I could play the Windows default sounds, or crank the mics up for a little ear piercing feedback delight.  

I'm glad I live here; there is never a shortage of people that want to drink and sing.     [/quot] There is ussually not a lack of singers. And the weird thing is there was not that night either.  Like I said very weird night.  Only happened one time.  Typically I have people begging to sing after the cutoff.

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Will sing or fish for food!!I'm not quite right!!

One of my favorite karaoke shows usually had a dance about halfway through it, usually the Electric Slide or something similar.  I'm not a big dancer myself, but alot of people enjoyed it, and I was glad they had it.  Some people go to sing.  Some people go to drink and listen to the singers.  Everyone can dance, so it's a nice thing that can bring everyone together.  

Of course there are plenty of karaoke shows that don't have dancing that do fine.  It's always up to the KJ and the bar....and of course, the customer!  


That's Entertainment
"Everything that happens in life
Can happen in a show
You can make 'em laugh
You can make 'em cry
Anything
Anything can go....
The clown with his pants falling down
Or the dance that's a dream of romance
Or the scene where the villain is mean
That's entertainment!..."

I guess i'm the only KJ in the world that ever has people dancing during a karaoke song being sung by a real live person?  

I'm a better karaoke crowd "entertainer" than i thought.

I know where everybody is coming from I have sang karaoke for many many years and once had the same attitude about karaoke only. After doing many parties my attitude and format has changed. During the summer I do 2 or 3 allnighters outside It is about the only time I can party get drunk and enjoy my system. We start at mid day and set awnings etc. About 7 setup the system About dark when it cools off we are cranked We then go till about 5 in the next morning. Thats when kids like to play kj and run the system. All rules go out the window. Nobody is filling out slips We just sing when we are ready. And nobody really cares Thats one way karaoke has changed a lot of us. It is not the only game just part of the party.

When we open again in a few weeks I am going to video tape shows . Also I figured out how to use the log in RoxBox It gives the song and strt time of all music played and you can tell how long the fill was played and give an indication of the pace of the show. You will be surprised to see just how much karaoke we do and te pace of the show.

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When I used to go out to sing, regularly, I wanted my singing time to be maximized.  While I rarely go out to sing today, I still want my singing time to be maximized.  Now, keep in mind, "maximized" is a relative. and often personal, term.

If a KJ starts the show 15 minutes late - MY TIME HAS NOT BEEN MAXIMIZED

If the KJ sings more than once during the evening - MY TIME HAS NOT BEEN MAXIMIZED

If a KJ plays puts new people into the rotation ahead of me - MY TIME HAS NOT BEEN MAXIMIZED

If some guest "star" is invited up to sing out of rotation, or sings one more song than the rest of us - MY TIME HAS NOT BEEN MAXIMIZED

If the KJ "disappears" (for a smoke, or flirting or whatever) and leaves on filler music - MY TIME HAS NOT BEEN MAXIMIZED

If I only get to sing one song per turn - MY TIME HAS NOT BEEN MAXIMIZED

If the venue pauses the show in order to select the winning ticket for the lingerie contest - MY TIME HAS NOT BEEN MAXIMIZED

If the KJ has to oversee a trivia contest - MY TIME HAS NOT BEEN MAXIMIZED

Now, getting back the theory of "relativity" and my personal views regarding the use of the term maximized".
If there is a small rotation, I am quite accepting of the host singing in each rotation.   If there is a small rotation, I understand why there may be long segments of filler music.  If there are a lot of people waiting to sing, I understand why some shows will allow me only one song, per turn (though I don't like it). If there are lulls I can understand why trivia contests can be important, especially for getting the rest of the audience involved.

Like "beauty", how to run a show IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER!!
So.....if you haven't been where the "beholder" is
        if you haven't walked in the "beholder's" shoes
what makes you such an expert?

Shouldn't you, as a KJ, use what works for you, in your venue, in your town?
Would any of you appreciate if I told you that the model I use to run my shows here in Ft Lauderdale is the only model anyone should use who wants to be considered a professional?

SIDEWHINER, you may know how to run a show that "works" in your little corner of the world - a place where nobody knows much about anything (or they'd clearly avoid you like the plague).  If you understood any more than you do about being an enterainer, you'd discusss your interest in the entire crowd and stop worrying about "karaoke".  If you were a 1/10th as smart and experienced as you make yourself out to be, you would be wondering what's happening in a major metropolitan area like Ft Lauderdale.  You'd want to consider what it might mean, eventually, for your little corner of the world.  You'd be querying me or DBK to find out what happened and how we think the circumstance evolved so that Karaoke is only the shell of its former self here.

As I once before had posted here, I've taught C&W dancing.  When I came here 17 years ago there were dozens of C&W lounges/bars/restaurants in a county of over 1 million residents (and people came here from two other counties for C&W entertainment).  People couldn't open a new C&W place fast enough.  And there were dozens of C&W western bands.  Today we have only 3 C&W venues (2 of which are barely surviving)  And let's not ignore what has happened to all of those C&W bands.  We even had bands perform here regularly from Nashville, that's how vibrant the market was!!  As for me, teaching dance was more of a hobby; I thankfully did not rely on the money it provided! But there were at least 10 dance studios that disappeared with the collapse of the venues.  Not a single dance studio survived!   So, anybody out there want to come here and open a C&W place.  They were quite the money-makers 20 years ago.  Come on down if you're interested and I'll give you free advice on what not to do in that regard.  In short, what used to work, doesn't anymore.  And the next day brought the next "thing"

99% of what you said, says one thing and only one thing.  SINGERS want to sing and anything else is a waste of their time.  They are not there for dancing and fill music and whatever else the Host has in mind that he thinks is going to be good for the singers.  SINGing is why they come  Not any other reason.  :shock:

Finally you may be starting to get it.

What i don't understand is why you think you should sing more than once in a rotation.  What priviledge do you own?

Never saw a KJ that plays singers more than once per, unless it's really, really, really slow.

As I once before had posted here, I've taught C&W dancing.  When I came here 17 years ago there were dozens of C&W lounges/bars/restaurants in a county of over 1 million residents (and people came here from two other counties for C&W entertainment).  People couldn't open a new C&W place fast enough.  And there were dozens of C&W western bands.  Today we have only 3 C&W venues (2 of which are barely surviving)  And let's not ignore what has happened to all of those C&W bands.  We even had bands perform here regularly from Nashville, that's how vibrant the market was!!  As for me, teaching dance was more of a hobby; I thankfully did not rely on the money it provided! But there were at least 10 dance studios that disappeared with the collapse of the venues.  Not a single dance studio survived!   So, anybody out there want to come here and open a C&W place.  They were quite the money-makers 20 years ago.  Come on down if you're interested and I'll give you free advice on what not to do in that regard.  In short, what used to work, doesn't anymore.  And the next day brought the next "thing"

For my know nothing existance in my cubical of the world, i'll tell you excatly what killed the Country Line Dancing here.  Saw it happen in 2 different bars when it was all the rage.

The bars had to hire you to teach the dances.

And they had to hire a DJ to play the dance music.

People came out in droves.   They had ball dancing and laughing.


HERE IS WHAT KILLED IT ARE YOU READY?

They all drank water.  :O

Some even snuck in their own bottles.  And when they were empty they snuck them out to the restrooms and used the water fountains to refill them.

The bars couldn't afford to pay the teacher and the DJ and make any money so they stopped doing it.


Maybe this isn't the forum some should be on.  It's a karaoke forum.    WE talk about how to do karaoke.      Ignoring the singers is going to have the same result as the country line dancing craze.     There will be no singers left to support karaoke so the bars won't need KJs to do what a DJ or jukebox can do "cheaper."

It's slowly happening.     Keep your head in the sand.

At least most karaoke singer want to support their entertainment.   Unlike the CLDancers.

The country line dancing craze ended because not enough people were there to make it worth while for the bars to do.

Lack of people that knew how to line dance because they wouldn't support the bars that wanted to teach you how to do it for "free."  All you had to do was buy some drinks.

So not enough dancers = not enough income.

So not enough singers = not enough income.

See anything setting a pattern here?

Ericlater - Question for you...  At your show do your singers sing two songs in a row on each of their turns?  I have never heard of such a thing, unless you only have a couple of singers.  :confused:

If they do sing two songs in a row, how do you handle the gap between one song ending and the other beginning?  Does the audience automatically clap after the first song without being told or so they wait until both songs are completed?

Sorry about all the questions.  This just really intrigues me.

Thanks,

Sharon

Also, I do have people that dance while people are singing all the time.

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Will sing or fish for food!!I'm not quite right!!

What was the big attraction at the Country Line dance lesson?    DISCO?  

Did they want to do karaoke during the lessons?    If they did would you let them?

One distraction is as good as another.

Tonight we have free line dancing lessons, if nobody wants to do anything else.

Tuesday & Wednesday nights are tough around here until people figure out what kind of a show we do - on Tuesdays sometimes, and usually at the behest of a singer, before the crowd started arriving I'd do a "two-fer" for a while. As soon as I had 5 people ready to sing, dropped the two-fer.  Again, we have amazingly good singers so it was never torture to hear two songs from a singer. Sometimes I'd get to pick the 2nd song so there was always that surprise element.

k

Sidewinder:

ABSOLUTELY ASTUTE on your part regarding line dancing.  And to this day people are still trying to figure it out.  Bravo to you.  So now what do all of the owner's whose clubs are out of business do today?   I told them back when it was happening and they didn't want to listen, just like you aren't listening to me now.  BTW, ironically part of our problem in S FL is that we also have to contend with water slurping karaoke singers.  But that's just part of it...read on

Sharon,

Your questions are more than welcome.
When karaoke was big here, most places only let you do one song per turn and you were lucky if you got to sing twice in an evening.  Today most shows have less than 15 singers, at a time, in the rotation.  You could have a total of 20-30 singers during the course of an evening (though not likely), but at any one time your only juggling 10-15 people waiting to sing, on average.  As new singers come in late, you might get "backed-up" towards the end of the show, the last hour to hour and half.  Then you might drop to one song per singer.  

And, yes, part of my job is to get/keep the audience acknowledging not just the singer, but each of the songs the singer does (usually two).  So, it gets hard coming up with words of encourgagement and acknowledgement, but I have to do that for every singer, for every song, for four hours a night!!!   And for the first half-hour of a show I may only have 5 singers.  At two songs each, say 7 minutes each singer in total, I can keep things moving fairly well.  If I don't have 5 singers right away, I've got to do other things until the rotation builds up and gets established.  And when I have only a few singers, I try to avoid having them sing over and over if there is a non-singing audience.  If there is no one around, the singers can sing to their heart's content; they're entertaining themselves and each other.    

Case in point.  I just literally came how from a friend's show that started an "Idol" contest tonight.  I arrived to the show at 11:30, after the contest was over.  The kj had the dance floor filled when I arrived; he had no singers left he told me.  So, even with a sore throat, at midnight I got up and did two songs to help him out.   Four other singers then put their names in.  At 1am he ended karaoke (for lack of interest) and was going to do dj'ing for the last hour.  At that point, I left.  There was nothing more I could add to the environment.

Now, this KJ is as experieced as they come.  No one knows more about sound systems than he.  The venue, as I described it once, has subs as big as Volkswagens.  There are three large screens around that place with the graphics and speakers everywhere.  You couldn't find a more condusive atmoshere and set-up for karaoke.  But, in spite of the marketing that is being done, in spite of the contest, in spite of the quality of the food, in spite of the attentiveness of the servers, in spite of the quality of the sound system, in spite of the song selecton, in spite of the small singing rotation, in spite of the high quality of the KJ, I COULD HAVE SUNG ALL NIGHT IF I HAD WANTED TO!!!

                                               -more to come-