Karaoke Forums

Before you say that business is down in this room I'd suggest that you check it out after midnight.

Joannie I understand your frustration. And GeminiMale hit you pretty hard. But he, like many of us in here, run shows designed to appeal to a certain demographic group or specific music style. To be honest, there are no "catch all" karaoke shows left in my area. Some are youth oriented, some are for more mature singers, some are predominantly country, some rock. Some have huge sound systems that blast your hair off, and some are so quiet that you can barely hear the singers in the back of the room because that's the way their people want it.

As the market matures, we KJs have specialized to stay alive.

You will find the perfect show for you if you look around. Everything's covered.

BTW "Closer" is greeted by gigantic yawns in my room today. There's no shock value to it at all anymore. Time for a smoke break. They've all done it at one time or another and moved on.

And I'm sorry if I'm not politically correct or maybe even just dense. But that list of banned 9/11 songs had me in stitches. Thanks for making my morning TopherM.

Actually I had stated earlier, those songs aren't allowed in my show due to the club rule. Since I am there 7 nights, I reprinted books to completely omit any song with language.
Doesn't mean they don't get asked about which is what I was responding to as far as Closer, the ladies are usually the ones that ask about it.
But like stated there is a place for those kinds of songs & it's usually in clubs that are younger as a rule.

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First of all I wasnt trying to hit anyone pretty hard . It just drive me crazy when these goody two shoe people..say stuff like it lower a show .Out 4 shows in this town I do have the best selection and Im not just saying that..Ive heard it from alot of others to..due to the fact I dont draw no lines when it come to selections...My feeling is this is you want to go to a place with no F Bombs and ect..then join a convent and become a nun...because the world just doesnt work that way..sorry to disappoint you

Only two options in your world, Gem? It's either your way or join a convent? I don't think so. I just go somewhere else that is more to my liking. There are plenty of "G" rated karaoke shows all over the world to get the goody two shoes people of the world to spend their money at. You come off as being very antagonistic, arrogant and even a little ignorant. I hope you are enjoying all of your success.

Methinks you mean "C'est la vie", that's life on Francais. .

We have explicit songs that are sometimes done, but as many have said it depends on the venue and if children are present. We even announce "The next song contains adult themes and adult language so if you will be offended you may want to step out for the sone", or words to this effect.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

There is a time to pray and a time to cuss..

A Gentleman or a Lady does not do the latter in the presence of somebodies Mother or children. Nor do we need it written in laws or stone and we will admonish those who do

Those who sing from the heart do not need shockers, tricks or buckets..

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G rated karaoke shows.....Im sorry.......if every karaoke show was G rated it would rather boring..and by the way its not my way I worry about ..its what singers want and what 1 or 2 want ..sorry

Time and place is key. I'm going to use an analogy again so go ahead and twist it how you want. I am an adult and not a goody two shoes but I am annoyed at the type of karaoke shows that feature a lot of singers that love to try and shock the audience with vulgarity. I do have the choice to leave and I will if I feel inclined.

Much like when I go to video store with my family to rent a video. I would take offense if the porn titles were mixed in with the family flicks. I can see Joanie's frustration with the place she loved to go to changing. I would stop going to Blockbuster to rent videos if they started to mix their porn in with the others.

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"Don't worry. It will feel better when it quits hurtin."

I ask the manager/owner what level of language or suggestiveness he wants; G, PG, PG13, or "anything goes;" the first time I work a venue. it's his call and his clientele. If they ask for advice, I ask how someone walking in the first time is likely to react to a singer doing Chef's "Chocolate Salty B***s," a capella the refrain for him, and say "That's really popular with the 'anything goes' crowd around here" - which it is.

Most of 'em don't want "anything goes" after that for some reason

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Dave's not here.

The one thing that I have noticed is that none of the really good singers ever waste a turn singing one of those vulgar songs. It's always the people that can't carry a tune in the first place. I guess if you can't impress with talent, you get desperate for any other way to get some attention. I know that I'm a lousy singer so I just don't go up there and try make a fool of myself. I would never dream of going up on the stage and singing some song loaded with curse words just to get some attention.

Every karaoke night I've gone to is in a bar. No place that I know of that does karaoke even allows minors inside. Do they have a policy of throwing out people that swear that don't get up to sing too? I always see people getting buzzed and yelling out profanities. You'd have to throw them out too.

I could see your point if it were at a venue like Applebee's, but otherwise...

I'm sure that your shows are just loaded with the classiest of people, Gem. I'm just an old fuddy duddy who likes to hang around with other like minded people. We know how to have a good time without making others feel uncomfortable or unwanted. I'm sure there is room for your type of shows. I'm just glad that they are more the exception than the rule.

I thought people went to karaoke to SHARE their god given talents with others. I guess some people's only god given talent is the ability to utter foul language in an effort to make other people uncomfortable. Cest La vie...Thank you for the spelling lesson. I thought I read somewhere in the FORUM RULES that correcting spelling was frowned upon around here and was considered flaming. I guess it's okay to do it to newbies? Nice welcome!

Welcome, Joannie....These people are the hardest on you at the beginning so they can tell if you have the cojones to hang around...you'll eventually earn your badges and the respect of others who are like-minded.

I am well on the other side of my 40s though anyone who has ever met me would never even guess that. I have hosted for many, many years, first for others and for myself since the mid '90s. At this stage you could say I've probably experienced every kind of show there is. I have a very low tolerance for boerish behavior but I'm afraid that there is a sub-class of people who seem to thrive on it and cultivate it. You're right (I think it was you but someone will correct me if I'm wrong) when you said that people without singing talent usually do those kinds of songs. Further up in this post I made a statement that there are those who derive some sort of sense of fulfilment from shocking the audience. Remember in 2nd grade? The boy who always made a fool of himself, always talked too loudly, and hit the girls at recess? Well, it seems chronologically they age but their mental attitude doesn't grow at all, and now they just sing shock value songs. Like the 2nd grade brat, they'll eventually go and find someone else to bother, thankfully.

I never give more attention to anyone who does this, either as an audience member or as a host - it's just a song. In most places it's old already ... and nobody really pays attention. Yup, time to go out and smoke, or use the bathroom, or find someone on the other side of the room to talk with. (I do find myself, however, with probably a somewhat perplexed facial expression and I will often watch them closely as they sing the entire song ... and they can't help but notice me I'm sure, sending "go away" vibes the entire time.) When they do finally decide to go away, the majority of those in attendance share the same relief as I feel. Sorry, you don't pass to third grade...you're doomed to repeat it over and over and over again!

Different tastes for different people. I happen to like the song "Date Rape". It isn't a particularly easy song to sing and only my better singers can pull it off. It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I like it. It is meant to be humorous and I take it as so.

I don't consider myself low class for liking the song because it has swear words or strong adult content. Just because a song has these elements doesn't mean it is less musically.

I agree a lot of songs use these tactics as attention getters, but I don't agree all songs that have swear words or adult content in them are worthless. I'm in an adult setting sitting in a bar. I don't believe it is inappropriate it is a matter of different tastes in music.

I don't care for heavy metal music and if I went to a karaoke bar that all they sang was that type of music I'd probably leave. I don't consider all those people lesser than me because I don't like their music.

I respect your opinion not to want to hear swear words or adult content in a song and I'm sure you can find that kind of show. I prefer to go to shows that have a variety of everything and I appreciate the humor of a song say like " The Axxhole song". Karaoke is to have fun. Some people enjoy making people laugh. If the song wasn't funny it wouldn't get sung. Sure some of these songs lose there luster through time. It's like hearing the same joke told to many times. Sure I'll laugh when a guy gets up and sings "Like a Virgin". I'm not lesser of a person because of it. No ones breaking any laws or getting hurt. I just have a different sense of humor than you.

By the way I'm 44 yr old acountant with 2 kids in college. One is studying to be a Veternarian and the other is in dental school.

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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).

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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'm amazed at how this topic seems to come up continually amongst KJ's and it ends up being such a polar issue. 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.

Personally, I make the conscious choice to not edit my books. There are some great songs that some of my best singers perform that have some pretty foul language in them. 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. However, my biggest reason for not editing is that I refuse to put myself in the position of judging what is morally acceptable. I mean once you start picking what songs are acceptable or not, it's a pretty slippery slope. Where do you draw that line. 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? I could list a bunch of examples like this but you get my point. So for me, editing the book is not an option because I simply refuse to put myself in that position. I buy the new releases and the any other songs that my guests ask for.

So I don't know why people are so quick to judge each other on this issue. IF you don't like edited books, then don't attend the shows of those who edit theirs. If you you want to edit your books or not, its your business to run as you see fit.

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DJ Tony
Let It Rip Karaoke

One thing I have noticed, in my area, is that shows that have a (anything goes) format, is that it wouldn't be too bad if you had to listen to ONE, or TWO songs, with offensive language, but lets's say one person sings CRAZY B***H, then the next person has to try to "out do" her, by singing something MORE offensive, and if they can't find a song that will SHOCK, they just start changing the lyrics to REGULAR songs. One that comes to mind is the song NOBODY by Sylvia, I've seen that song transformed into one of the most offensive songs I've ever heard. Then the WHOLE show becomes a F*** fest. Don't get me wrong, if that's your thing, MORE POWER TO YOU. The only thing I can say, is once you have a reputation of putting on that kind of show, it will get harder to get more gigs.

Rosario

I love that song. One of my all time favorites. I've only heard it done correctly. I don't know the alternative lyrics you speak of, but given the topic of the song, I can imagine the vulgarity adlibbing could produce. I am curious to hear it though, just to see how bad it gets butchered. I'm not a fan of singing vulgarities, but I do feel I have a great sense of humor as well as sick sometimes. This version you speak of sounds a bit funny to me. Not right, just maybe funny.

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).

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C Mc
KJ, FL