Karaoke Forums

Recently I went to see the much-hyped new KJs at a popular Seattle karaoke spot. With all due respect, I couldn't figure out what they were trying to do.

The pair worked in tandem, one ran the gear while the other acted as MC. The latter had tons of energy in pumping up the crowd, but I couldn't understand why they would play 3, 4, 5 minutes of music between songs. The place wasn't packed – but busy – yet there was a two hour wait to sing.

As a KJ, I know first and foremost we're in the entertainment business, but when people come to a bar which advertises "Karaoke Night" - I personally think it's a crime to play so much dance music when there are already 15-20 people waiting to sing.

People want to dance? There are dance clubs for that. By trying to straddle the line, my take is the KJ ends up cheesing off both the partiers begrudgingly waiting through karaoke singers to dance, and singers who have to endure one or more full dance tracks before they can sing.

See what Western Washington KJs (including our own KarenK) had to say in my column in the the upcoming issue of Karaoke & Entertainment Magazine.

Meanwhile, what's your take from around the rest of the world?

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[font=Lucida Console]DangerousKaraoke.com[/font]
[font=Lucida Console]"Sing for the day, sing for the moment, sing for the time of your life!"[/font]

My experience is if the crowd really wants to dance, someone will pick dancable songs to sing. Otherwise they will go down the street to dozens of DJ only places.

Dance music may be ok if you have a waiting list of less than 5 singers sometimes, but otherwise not really on a karaoke night in my opinion.

This observation/question, as does so many subjects we discuss regarding how to run a karaoke show, has no empirically correct answer. In short, the "truth", Dan, is whatever you believe it to be.

I happen to believe that how you run your show is a function of who comprises the crowd at the venue on any particular day!

You suggest that playing the filler music was a bad decision at this particular show because of the length of wait the singers experienced. And granted, while 4-5 minutes of filler between EACH karaoke song is a bit much, I have played "lengthy" filler music in between singers at the start of my show for the benefit of the 20 or more non-singing customers in the place when I had only 4-5 singers.

Yet, while the singer's wait was not at all long, and the singers had sung 2 times during the first hour, they complained nonetheless about my "keeping them from singing more" with the filler music!!!

If I don't have a lot of singers I will play a singer set followed by a short dance set.

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Good music, good friends, howling good times!

Agree with DAN. Use it as filler between singers. If some dancing starts happening then play 1 maybe 2 more to let them get their ya ya's out.(that will happen maybe twice a night typically--a 7th Inning Stretch) Then back to singing. No more than 45 secs at a time between songs. 3,4,5 mins is REDICULOUS.

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"You know that I sing the Blues and I do not suffer fools. When I'm on that silver mic, it's gonna cut ya, just like a knife"-The SWINGCAT

I went to a new karaoke place a couple weeks back and someone was singing when I walked in but as soon as the song was over the DJ started a dance song. When it was clear that the RE-MIX was going to be played to it's end, I decided it was time to blow off the new place and go to one of my usual karaoke spots , where I know they DON'T play filler music. They had a chance to gain a new customer but the filler music cost them a customer instead.

SInce I don't dance (and don't like being around those that do ), I hate filler music...except for the short music played while the KJ cues up the next singer....even when there are few singers..as long as they have songs in...let-em sing...use the music when u got nobody to sing.

Might have had something to do with advertising a karaoke show, not a karaoke/DJ show. That's what honks people off.

The other one that kills me is an advertised 9pm start time, where the host says "Oh, I'm going to wait until we have a few singers". Well, thanks for throwing my time in the toilet, bud. And why would any singer show up early if they knew they were going to have to wait?

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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.

It never ceases to amaze me of how some people have no concept of being an entertainer. It seems like so many of these folks say to themselves, "Gee. I like music! I like to sing! I think I'll become a karaoke jock!" All the while they have no idea what to do for a crowd once they get one........it boggles the mind!

It's a simple rule : If you're a KJ, and you have people that want to sing, don't try to be "MixMaster Mike". Let your customers sing!

I agree places like this need to advertise correctly ! I prefer just karaoke and would be disappointed to walk into a place that was doing this.

I don't play music sets or filler music at my venue, but let me just be devils advocate for a second.

You said the place was packed. There is a place for DJ/KJ, maybe this is one of those places. If it was packed, what they are doing is working for them. so I have no problem with that unless they advertised karaoke only.

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

I only play dance music if I don't have singers if the venue is right. If it's a country or rock bar, I play those types of songs if I don't have any singers. If I have singers then it's straight karaoke and if they want danceable music then they will have to pick that type of song to sing.

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The Line Array Experiment is over. Nothing to see here. Move along.

Clearly, those who have long-established shows with substantial rotations cannot relate to someone who is running a new show, or a marginally successful show, or a show that has peaks and valleys throughout the show as to the number of people who care to sing. I have shows where some of the people are happy to sing just once and I quickly realize as people decline to provide their next request that my rotation isn't as large as I may have thought!

And when I have a limited/small number of singers I won't, as already stated, keep bringing them up over and over. And such a circumstance is exactly why I started the thread which asked how many times do you expect to sing in the course of an evening. There were several responses I appreciated but none more than BFFL who said as many times as everyone else!

That's sometimes the best that I can do for the singers regardless if the evening is billed as "karaoke" or not!

I've always used house music for filler, but never anything more. It's great between singers, I prefer it to dead air (maybe that comes from my radio experience, I don't know). If I have a relatively light rotation and the same people have been singing a bunch AND I notice people getting into a particular song, I'll let it play out. Never more than one song unless the list is empty.

Tovmod, I know where you're coming from and I happen to agree. I've made it no secret that I have a show right now that's struggling. I tell you what, if I didn't have house ("dance") music to play, it'd be even worse.

That said, I have seen shows like what Dan describes and as a singer it really ticks me off. One of the local bars in town here is a place that I've tried a couple times to get into. Unfortunately, he's now shifted his Karaoke night to Thursdays when I have my regular weekly gig at another bar. We went in on a Thursday night I had off to see what he had and it was horrible. Almost exactly as Dan described above. The one thing that made it even worse was when they did actually allow someone to sing, half the time they'd sing with/over the person. It sucked and I decided there if this is what the bar owner wants, I'll have no part of it and I've stopped trying to get in there.

BTW: Off topic but this past week, things picked up again at that show and I had a pretty good crowd for Karaoke even though the rest of the bar was pretty sparse. A polar opposite of the last two weeks.

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DJ Tony
Let It Rip Karaoke

In the other thread Tov I posted what I prefer as a singer. I have no problem with KJs that play DJ music. It's just most places I've seen that do this aren't filling time with music because they don't have singers. They are making singers wait to sing, so they can play music for all the non-karaoke people.

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

Filler music. What's that? .

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You can be strange but not a stranger

Same as DUMPER music Tim.

Too much of it and you end up dumping your entire crowd on the next karaoke venue!

Filler music is "Killer Music" for me.

Mrmarog

Bumper music, eh?