Karaoke Forums

Nope.
Boring song is a boring song....
Boring singer is a boring singer....
Boring singer doing a boring song.... snoozy time.

Now, A really great singer doing a boring song is more interesting.... but still somewhat boring.

Can't blame the equipment for being boring... you can if it doesn't "amplify and enhance" a performance... but you can't make chicken salad when you only have chicken S%^& to start with.

it's like too much of anything - even the best ice-cream after 6 bowls would get old. Nothing wrong with ballads - people like Richard Marx and Josh Groban have made fortunes with their ability to melt people with their ballad performances; but even listening to them for 4 hours, singing the same tempo songs, would get old. Just the way it is.

No again.
Boring is boring.
A good singer on a good song, even if the equipment isn't the best, can get the crowd going. By the same token, a terrible song by a terrible singer on great equipment doesn't make it any better.
For example, listen to the old Victrolas. Some songs are still great after all these years, even though the sound quality is about as poor as it gets. The only thing is, you find yourself wishing you could hear it better (better quality sound).
Now find a boring song on the most up to date high end equipment and you find yourself wishing you COULDN'T hear it!

I actually did something I never do last week. Insert myself into the last round to sing a ballad.

The bar was concerned that the room was getting too wild and we needed to calm them down.

My choice: "No Woman No Cry." Nice and L-O-N-G.

Is "Love Hurts" considered a ballad? I discovered it is perfect for my falsetto voice.

I know it sounds (the song not my voice) pretty darn good with the sub woofer backing up my mains.

In my experience, in most situations the crowd will adust themselves to fullfill their needs. I've the opposite problem in one of my venues, a Sunday afternoon gig turned into mayhem, because one singer wanted only to sing rock songs. . . He's very enthusiastic and very loud and tends to opt for Iron Madien and Metallica numbers. . . and the customers would leave in droves for a fag break nearly everytime he sang. We eventually solved the problem, buy investing in a compressor and monitors, which keeps the overall volume down, but still allows the singer on stage to hear the music at a "saturday night" level.

I occasionally ask customers to change their songs, but for the best part I leave them to it. . . the only time I ever really try and nudge them, is on a long roation at the end of the night, I will suggest that if anyone would like to do a duet they stand more of a chance of singing before home time.

I've always loved karaoke for the variety it brings, one minute it's Frank Sinatra, the next Meatloaf. . . a band or DJ would never get away with such a random jump in styles. . . but for karaoke it's the mix of songs in my opinion that make it work.

I've been to Ballad Hell... And It's not pretty. Of course the KJ's have it tough compared to singers like me. I can do ballads, rock, country and beach. Even done a little Motown back in the day. As a singer when you walk into a club, you can't always sing what YOU want. With a little experience, you can size up a crowd in 5-10 minutes and pick song to "help the party out".

If KJ's want to limit the ballads, then don't put them in the book. I can do Meatloaf very well, but not alot of people want to hear 8 minutes of Paradise by the Dashboard Light" either...

Just like on American Idol, you have to pick the right song to be known as a performer... Just my [schild=14 fontcolor=000000 shadowcolor=000000 shieldshadow=1]$0.02[/schild]

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"Anything worth doing, is worth OVERDOING"... - Steven Tyler of Aerosmith

Spandau Ballet's " True " is one of the few songs that I do that actually elicits a positive response from the crowd before I've uttered the first vocal. Like everything else in life..........moderation. Rudy.

Amen brother. Story teller songs are the worst for having fun, and every pro-country artist seems to have one.
I don't wanna hear about their house getting a flat tire....or that their pick-up blew a nut.....or that their dog ran away with the neighbors dog.....or that their wife was caught at the local motel with some dude from the hardware store....etc....etc....

Some of that $h*t should've never made it to the studio, let alone the airwaves or a cdg!

We all have our preferences. Every time I hear some five-minute new wave dirge where the singer declares their everlasting angst and pain at having to live the most coddled life in history, with their every material need taken for granted, I want to upchuck. They must be expressing the pain caused by their tattoos and piercing....

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

I hate that $h*t too! It's like.....d*mn man....get over it already!

I also don't get the tattoo & piercing thing either, but if people wanna desecrate the body that God gave 'em, sometimes it's an improvement!

I like country music! But I can only stand to sing something that's not the "same 'ole story". There are many excellent country songs. I guess I'm just not a redneck really.

I asked my cousin the other day if she was still listening to a lot of hip hop like she was a few years ago. She got an amused smile on her face and said, that's what she listened to in grade school! As Neil Diamond states (in a ballad, or is it a ballad?): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qolotpjbToc

Okay, just to be a little nit-picky, "That's Life" is a swing blues, so already you've got a variety there. But I do get annoyed by singers who think ballads are all there is - and that they are somehow harder to sing. I've found the exact opposite - party songs often have much trickier rhythms and vocal ranges to deal with.

So, nothing wrong with ballads, necessarily, but seven in a row is a good way to send your audience to sleep. Variety, baby!

_________________
See/hear the serial version of Michael's karaoke novel, "Outro," at outronovel.blogspot.com

I think people think ballads are more difficult for beginners because you have to hold notes but I agree that some fast songs that arent' strictly 4/4 time singing can trip up a good ballad singer. They fight that syncopation all the way. Plus it can be difficult to get that gutsy rock and roll sound without being stupid.

So I had a ballad hell experience, myself. We had a slow night at our venue so we were in the rotation. I usually do fast songs but one customer that loves the reggae songs that I do that aren't really reggae asked if I knew any Bob Marley. I told him I could only sing one of his songs and it was slow. '

"Oh no, sing it anyway. I love Bob Marley."

So I did "Songs of Freedom. " I sat down and the barmaid said, "NO. NO. Don't EVER do that song again. I was falling asleep. I mean, you sounded ok but it was really boring. I was yawning the whole time."

I looked at the requester and said, "I told you I could only do a slow one," and he said, 'NO, don't do that one again. Do a fast one next time."

So I keep smiling and call up the next singer who happens to be the barmaid who was bored with my song. She did .........

"PICTURE."

Now that is funny - PICTURE. Man, I hate that song. There is a group of young'uns who pop in to my Fri night show, which i have to say is out in the boonies - captive audience ... small place, everybody knows everybody. Proud to be rednecks, cowboys, hunters, fishermen, 4-wheelers - you know the crowd. So they always sing "A Country Boy Can Survive" and "Family Tradition" but last night two of them did "Total Elipse of the Heart" just so they could cuss in it. I told them that they could probably go to WalMart and get a cordless, battery operated microphone to use when they really just wanted to get on a mic and cuss..I just don't get it. Oh, the ring leader does "Wanted Dead or Alive" and has to say, "I'm a M-F'n' Cowboy..." of course. Lordy, I don't get it. They all cheer wildly for each other...

After 4 pages we are getting closer to an answer for Rosario's question.

Per Wikipedia:
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative story and set to music. Ballads were characteristic of particularly British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the nineteenth century and used extensively across Europe and later north America, Australia and north Africa. Many ballads were written and sold as single sheet broadsides. The form was often used by poets and composers from the eighteenth century onwards to produce lyrical ballads. In the later twentieth century it took on the meaning of a slow form of popular love song.

The last line of that definition provides, I believe, the most accurate description of what is a ballad. However, for purposes of this discussion, let me propose that in the minds of many posters, a ballad is any song that is not up-tempo, regardless if it is a love song or not. Consider for examples two songs already discussed, "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald" and "That's Life", neither are technically ballads!

As an aside, while "No Woman No Cry" is technically a ballad I would say that it is first and foremost considered by many to be a reggae song which creates, in its own way, a whole different type of audience reaction!

So, I think that we can agree that what we are primarily discussing in this thread relates to differences in tempo: Up-tempo vs not up-tempo! Beyond that, there are additional factors to consider, including: are the lyrics depressing; can the audience relate to the lyrics; is the song hackneyed; can the singer put the song over; how many similar songs were just sung; what is the overall mood of the crowd?

I don't refer to the problem as "Ballad Hell"! But I am always concerned about what is specifically happening to the energy in the room. If the room has a bunch of partying twenty somethings that are dancing around and enjoying hip-hop music, I can't predict how four performers in a row who choose to sing upbeat classic country songs will effect the energy. That situation may be no better than the dreaded "Ballad Hell", even though the tempo of the songs is not an issue. It will depend solely upon the crowd! Right?

There is no "formula" that should be shunned in order to avoid entering what has been labeled "ballad hell"! And I have seen couples get up to dance to slow songs as often as I have seen couples get up to dance fast. Of course fast songs, unlike slow ones, allow people to get up and dance by themselves.

So, those are the main factors, as I see them, regarding the subject at hand. And, it's up to the KJ to always try to sense where the crowd is at and what impact the song selection and singers are having on the non-singing, as well as, the singing audience!

I can't tell you in a vacuum how an audience will react to "I Left My Heart In San Francisco" (a true ballad) nor can I predict sitting here how that song will effect the room's energy when followed by "Piano Man" (a waltz) and then by "My Maria" or "Neon Moon" (both cha cha's)?

Lastly, it takes a lot more talent to sing a slow song well. Slow songs require sustaining notes while so many upbeat songs allow one to scramble through the notes without concern for the intonation or vocal quality produced for each individual note! So, there are people who definitely do appreciate hearing a slow song done well, but how many of them they might appreciate/tolerate in a row is a matter of conjecture and will depend upon the actual circumstances.

Ummm.... wrong. "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald" IS a ballad in the true sense of the word. It tells a story, does it not?
One of the few songs in this day and age that DOES epitomize the definiton.
I'm not familiar with "That's Life" so I can't comment on that song.

Diafel

And what is your point in regard to the overall discussion I presented? Yes, some would include sentimental songs along with romantic ones if defining a ballad. And the theme song of both the movie and TV show for the character of the same name was known as "The Ballad Of Davy Crockett"! So what? Doesn't every song tell a story? It may not be a romantic one, it may not be sentimental but it is a story, nonetheless, that the composer is presenting.

But back to the question at hand; the essence of my viewpoint is that:

1) some people ARE incorrectly defining songs to be ballads, that AREN'T and which, therefore, could be confusing to Rosario and is definitely confusing to me!
2) AND some people, I believe, are NOT really troubled by ballads so much as they are troubled by less "lively" songs!

And THAT is the crux of it. Less lively songs.
Too many in a row and people get turned off and fall asleep.
And yes, it takes more talent to sing a slow song well, regardless of the complexities of more up tempo songs. With a slow song, you must be good enough to capture the audience's attention. Not many people can do this, regarless of their singing ability.
With an up tempo sing, people tend to sing along and therefore less talent can be got away with because they are entertained by singing along, tapping their toes, etc.

Friday night I had a "ballad hell" experience. Now, I believe there is nothing wrong with some ballads here and there, but I had like ten ballads to one upbeat song that night. IMO a true ballad is one that tells a story, but as far as "ballad hell" goes, it's anything that will bore the crowd to tears, regardless of genre. That's exactly what I had happen friday. The place wasn't that busy to begin with, and then everyone started singing these slow, quiet songs. I found myself really trying hard to stay awake! Honestly! Let me tell you what happened with all those slow songs being sung. Only a few people danced, and about 11:30 people started leaving because they weren't having "fun". I even tried to do the upbeat dance break, didn't work. Maybe people were just wanting to be bored, dunno. But as far as ballad hell goes, it's a party killer for sure. Hope next week is better.

Scott