Karaoke Forums

That's about it Your other option is asking the kj if the book is current. I don't ask if they delete or not. I look for a song. If I don't find it, I'm none the wiser. Next song.........

Wow Angel! Stick foot in and swallow?

Last week was my best week yet and we didn't have a slew of "good singers". Some would be considered pretty bad by someone like you I would imagine. I had someone butcher All Summer Long. But people were having fun and no one was there to sign a recording contract so it was what it was. It is always a treat when we get someone that can bring a smile to the house but it is what it is and everyone one is welcome to sing at the KingBing shows!


I refuse to change my books! I have a disclaimer in the front that states if song may be considered offensive to someone, I may not play or may shut off. Depends on a lot of things but in the end, it's up to my discretion. If a slip is turned in and for whatever reason I don't want it performed, I will seek them out, let them know why, apologize and ask them to please select another one.

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KingBing Entertainment C'mon Up! I have a song for you!!! [font=MS Sans Serif][/font]

And then there's me.... who brings my own discs with me to sing from. The only way that doesn't work, is when the KJ says they "Can't" play discs.

A lot of people don't know that Turn the Page was really written about a karaoke singer leafing back and forth through a song book that had too many versions of PBDL. The karaoke place is somewhere East of Omaha (a friend of mine actually went there once). Anyhow, all the eyes are upon this guy that is trying to pick out his song, but there are so many versions of the same song, he doesn't know which one to pick and he gets so mad that he just wants to explode. At the end of the song he describes himself lying awake in bed with the song still echoing in his mind and thinking about what the KJ told him about taking so long to pick a song and get up to the mic (like it was his fault or something)!

Turn the page...yep.

I've never experienced a KJ in this area turning down a song slip because he or she didn't like the song or was tired of hearing it. I can't even imagine that happening. That's part of the job - I do not EVER want to hear "YMCA" again or a group of drunk 20-somethings sing "Love Shack" again, but if I'm getting paid to give people the opportunity, I don't care if they sing the whole Village People catalog. That's just basic customer service. Showtunes? I've sung a couple of those at dodgy bars, and you know what.....people seem to like the change of pace, and respect you for having the guts to sing an obscure ballad from "Chess" in front of a bunch of tattooed tough guys and their Budweisers

But when you're talking about flagrantly misogynist, racist, or profanity-filled songs, that's a whole different ballgame. It's not just that I can't stand public profanity (and I can't), it's just plain embarrassing and makes people uncomfortable. If you can pull a switcheroo with a word or two, like saying "messed up" instead of "f**** up" on "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams," there you go. But a song that's just not singable if you have to axe out the four-letter words or the endless references to "bitches," or a song that's just woman-hating from start to finish......I would keep those out of my book, but I can understand why someone who KJ's at a rowdy place with all young people there might keep them in. But I don't see any point in this profession essentially promoting/enabling women-hating, even indirectly.

And that is my $0.02.

HEY!!! I was planning to sing "Strawberry Wine" when I come see you!!! What???? After I sing it, you might like it

I'm just kidding...I only sing that song on request.

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It's called Karaoke Therapy...

I agree that most people here are simply stating how they do at their venues. I don't think anyone is trying to say that they are completely right. It does depend on the demographics of the crowd you are entertaining.

Opinions of whether or not to censor are seen differently from person to person. I do censor to avoid customers being offended for any obvious reason and to keep some people from using songs to purposely offend anyone. (I have had that happen in my bar before.)

In most situations, some profanity and adult content wouldn't be offensive to anyone. Like you said, he!! or sh!t...playful songs like "Strokin" that include adult content seem to be fine. I have witnessed the power music has to influence the mood in a place though. I try to keep a very well rounded selection. Like you, I don't let my personal liking of a song influence my decision to keep it in my book. So, I do have some heavy metal stuff in my books that I absolutely do not care for. Usually, Black Sabbath, Smashing Pumpkins (save one or two songs from them), Ozzy Osbourne, etc. are not songs that excite me whatsoever. They are not often chosen to sing, so it's not a problem. The bar I work in is a fairly calm, fun-loving, laid back kind of crowd. But there have been a few instances when groups of singers would all decide they are going to sing metal, head banging songs. The mood of the songs definately was reflected in the behaviors displayed in the bar. They start being obnoxious, yelling out offensive things, being destructive, etc. It can get pretty bad. I try to break those songs up when I find it necessary. It's usually not necessary, but when it is....

And I'm like you, I don't judge or berate those who do things differently than me.

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It's called Karaoke Therapy...

This is what happen when people have more than one way to do thing. In my country I have no choice. ALL the songs are censored by the gov't.
The choice left for us would be; do I include religious songs?

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I can neither confirm nor deny ever having or knowing anything about nothing.... mrscott

Malaysia's official religion is Islam. Would Christian hymns be censored, and if not, do people find them offensive?

I know all religious songs were censored from the books in China while I was there, as well as songs deemed pornographic by the government.

It's amazing how different customs can be in different lands, while people are so much alike at the same time.

(this message is driven by insatiable curiousity . . . sorry for the OT)

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Dave's not here.

Yes and no. If the hymns is in English, no; but the translation must not use the word Allah. Not just for hymns but all religious material including the holy bible. Other than that things are ok.

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I can neither confirm nor deny ever having or knowing anything about nothing.... mrscott

I never did before either, UNTIL our club got tired of the problems (almost a fight every night) we were having & it usually was generated by the singers singing the F-Bomb songs. They told me I had to get rid of those, even though I argued the point for a few months, it was the ultimatum if I wanted to keep my job, I would comply to their rules. Well OK I needed the money at the time. But I expected we would lose a BUNCH of customers, WHICH WE DID! What I did not expect was we actually gained a better class of singer (that did not want to hear the F-Bomb songs) that actually spent MORE in the bar than the people that would typically buy a pitcher between a table of 6 & create problems by the end of the night.
I have a bunch of songs probably in the tune of a couple hundred minimum that I do not list, however I will allow on occasion one of the 'banned' songs to be sung provided I know the singer will censor themself which they always have to date.

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

I just wanted to point that out before the thread got nasty.





I know it it made a profound change for you Lon and I'm sure the same tactic would probably work for others that are having a similar problem. I'm not disputing that.

I do although believe there are bars like mine that don't need to sensor because we aren't having those problems.

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Exactly, if there are no problems to begin with, then there is no reason to review a policy.

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

I attend 4 to 5 karaoke bars weekly on a fairly frequent basis and the 2 or 3 with the larger numbers of customers and singers as well, ranging on average between about 10 and 35 (and sometimes even more) singers the crowd is rather happy and care free until the 'other' crowd that Lon described starts to show up. When they start with the F-bomb worded type of songs the place starts to thin out pretty quickly. One bar owner caught on and asked that the KJ not play those kind of songs when the majority of the crowd were not of that type and especially when the crowd started to leave. He realized that fewer customers meant fewer sales.

The others are looking closely and are feeling a bit nervous but have yet to outright ban that kind of music except for one who seems bent on playing any type of song that the singer wants. For the most part the crowd tends to be younger and more accepting than those from my era. They seem to still be doing well for the much of the time. After about thirty minutes of that type of music I usually leave as well and go on down the street to the next venue that isn't playing that kind of music.

I'm just fortunate that within my travel area I have about 12 or so establishments that offers Karaoke all week except on Sundays and Mondays to choose from.

I think one reason I don't have a problem with this is because I have a diverse crowd all night. My 20 somethings are mixed in all night with the other ages and they're pretty conservative kids. A lot of them have parents or grandparents that come to the show also. I never have a string of hard core songs sung. It's usually maybe one or two here and there, if that.

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[updown]~*~ MONKEY BUSINESS KARAOKE~*~ [/shadow][/updown][/glow]

Well first of all let me say that I agree with the statement "if it works for you, it is ok".

Other than that I personally agree with ripman. That's how I handle it, too.

My Friday night has gone from soft and friendly karaoke to harder core dancing (I swear some people could get pregnant on our dancefloor) and the karaoke songs that accompany it. Has the bar lost customers? Yep! Has it gained more? Yep! Is there more trouble? Yep!

I let someone else do the show because it got to be less fun than I was looking for. I just take my cut and order the songs as requested! My feeling is that I'll keep all the songs in the book but edit their listing if needed. I'll tell people that some songs are 'too harsh' for this venue or for this time of night if needed and it only happens rarely.

I'm against removing songs from the book as to me it is no different than Walmart refusing to stock a certain book / CD etc. Some people don't realistically have the chance of anything other than Walmart and whilst I would love to have Walmart's revenue I have no intention of becoming as evil as them!

An overblown exaggeration, absolutely! I'll agree to disagree with some people's reasons for doing what they do. Will I censor songs in front of an audience if needed? Yep, hopefully in a way that is humorous and the audience appreciates either way!

Jonn

You can not cater to everyone and maintain a decent respectable crowd. Something has to go. As a KJ or a bar owner the decision must be made. I think the bar owners would want to error on the side of caution. It doesn't take much to ruin a good crowd. A few bad apples can spoil the entire batch.

Even one person with a $5 bill can ruin a nice dinner crowd by using the jukebox to play an objectionable string of songs. What makes more sense? Keep a big dinner crowd or the $5 wizard? I personally don't think the profit margin on a jukebox and the ASCAP fees make it worth paying the electric to keep it on. Not based on it's power to destroy profits long term.

If i'm the bar owner i'm hiring Lonman over another type of KJ. Just makes more business sense. It's not worth the risk otherwise.

That brings a question to mind. Do bars censor juke boxes ever? Just curious, considering most of the bars in the suburbs now have digital downloads, so you can get any song out there. I haven't seen an old school jukebox in a while now. Do they have some feature to censor?

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[shadow=pink][glow=deepskyblue]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[updown]~*~ MONKEY BUSINESS KARAOKE~*~ [/shadow][/updown][/glow]

A bar owner I worked with at one time DID have certain songs 'unavailable' on his digital jukebox. And I had to wait until he left for the night to play anything at all that even remotely resembled hip-hop.

The interesting thing about this topic is that often the people who stop going to a place, one or two at a time, don't really affect the bottom line until six months later and someone starts saying, "Hey, where is so-and-so lately? They haven't been in for a while." And pretty soon you end up talking about 5-6 groups of people...who are now happily situated somewhere else singing. It can be a gradual drain and sometimes you get people replacing them, sometimes not. All I'm suggesting here is that it isn't always obvious the impact certain changes will have on a place. It doesn't always happen that someone stands up and states loudly, "Well I hate this kind of music and won't listen to it anymore and I'm going somewhere else." They can just stop coming and find another venue that doesn't promote that kind of atmosphere. This is unlikely to happen when someone sings Bob Seger or Reba McEntire, and more likely to happen when someone sings "F@@K Her Gently" or "Closer."