Karaoke Forums

Ugh. I hate that stupid term BUMPER music. sounds childish. FILLER MUSIC fills in the gap of dead air between singers approaching and leaving the stage and keeps the energy levels up, and occasionally introduces an artist in which to sing from!

If anyone else has a different definition of "BUMPER" music to FILLER MUSIC, please chime in, but i believe they are exactly the same Cue.

I also feel like it is semantically dishonest. It gives the impression that it "bumps" or hurries along the next singer, when in my experience it does the opposite.

That is not to say that the host can't create an atmosphere where people don't waste time getting to the stage. But I see a lot of cases where filler music seems to empower people to take a swig of their beer, finish their conversation, and saunter to the stage. When you are doing your job, they should know they are next and be ready, so any "dead air" should be minimal.

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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.

Some people are just plainly slow to get to the stage, and there is nothing you can do to speed them up. I dislike this totally too. When i have a rotation that is more than about 10, i go into the audience and tell the next singer to be ready while doing a bit of "shmoozing" along the way. Still some people just want to finish their conversations, or grab a swig of "courage", or whatever, and they take what seems an eternity to arrive at the stage area. A little fill in music hits the spot very nicely right about now. Even if i am playing a few seconds of some good dance music, i will make an announcement or two. But there is only so many announcements a host can make. If the singer is too slow period, I actually might make them wait a turn, done that before. SOOOO mean of me, how dare I keep things going!!!

Hey Mick, when you come to my show in March you can see how filler music is suppose to be used... !

Low volume "peppy" filler that creates atmosphere and subliminal song suggestions. It in no way impedes the speed of the rotation. Using compuhost the music automatically fades in and out at a preset level. The karaoke is much louder...

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Good music, good friends, howling good times!

Listening to the various opinions of others is useful for getting ideas of what to do or not do. But what it ultimately comes down to is do you run your show for people on the forum who may never attend it or do you run it for the people who are actually there?

Good point. Each of us have to make out own individual conclusions on how our own needs of our venues. Each of my four venues have their own special requirements, and none of them have the same needs. I host each of them accordingly to whatever the situation calls for. I guess if you had to put it into one word, it would be "flexibility".

I went out with some friends last yr and ended up at a bar with karaoke. I was the only singer most of the night. My friends and I had a blast. I felt like a lounge singer. I was getting requests from the patrons to sing songs, sang with the KJ, sang with my friends and sang with a couple people in the bar that wouldn't of sang otherwise.

The KJ never played music sets and survived with basically one singer, me. Now I wouldn't have blamed him if he did. It sure did make our night that he didn't though.

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

Good point LL.

It almost seems futile to try and keep everyone happy but ya gotta at least try.

I think no two crowds are ever the same unless you're in a smaller venue, so being versatile enough to read and adjust to every TOTALLY NEW crowd (91.3% for me) is very important to keep everyone interested in staying and spending money.

SURE i'd like to keep the strictly karaoke singers happy, but what's better for the OVERALL crowd is more important to ME. I am fortunate in that nearly ALL of my singers actually appreciate the occasional dance song and participate in them.

Every show is different typically every week, except my tuesday show, which is generally strict KARAOKE ONLY because people have come to know that it's not usually a party crowd and i don't usually play dance or Filler music.- it's too busy with singers who want to sing only. The staff knows this as well.

Oh, I've seen it. I have been to 250+ different karaoke shows in 26 states and provinces, so I have seen a lot of things.

And as I said, it can be pretty acceptable lots of times. At the risk of adding too much adulation, Lonman's show is an example of proper use. But a lot of hosts probably don't realize that they are taking a long time -- I believe the music covers it up.

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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.

"Bumper music is a term used in the radio broadcasting industry to refer to short clips of music used to buffer transitions between programming elements." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bumper_music

I cannot believe because I called it something different that you would think there is a difference. It IS filler music. It IS preventing dead air. Turning a knob up and down as one disc ends and another starts playing does not waste any time but far be it from me to do anything right.

What Jackasse's that are on here.

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Kevin

Top-40, Top-100 music played between singers, 30-45 seconds between singers. Used to maintain the energy and flow of the show. NO DEAD AIRTIME ALLOWED. NO SILENT DEAD TIMES ALLOWED.

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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

Cue

"Bumper Music" is a professional expression, used in radio broadcasting..

Those that are never in a radio engineering booth may actually call it "Filler Music".

From Wikipedia..

Sorry Kevin, haven't worked in radio before and never heard that term.

-doesn't make me a jackazz...well at least not today.

nothing personal, no offense intended.

I can tell you I'm a firm believer that dead air is mood killer. I've seen it, i've felt it. I can get someone up in 10 seconds, and cue instantly... but there is no dead air in that 10 seconds.

In a crowded bar it can take longer as a person "fights" to get to the microphone... Am I suppose to fill that with talking?? I think people would rather hear music... something up beat. But that's just me. I say do what works, but I've had bar owners on more than one occasion specifically ask me if I play filler music. The answer better be yes!

In the area I work in... it's expected. There are guys out there who run shows with no filler music and use disks. They don't play in upscale clubs, and that's where the $200+ a night money is.

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Good music, good friends, howling good times!

Ask any serious media jockeys and they'll tell you dead-air is one of their worse nightmare.

Now you've said something I can go with. For that type of gig, I think filler music makes sense. I have seen them, but I tend to shun big sports bars on Friday night.....

For the more typical dive-bar karaoke, I don't personally like it. Part of that is that there are definitely hosts who use it as cover to take their sweet time. Probably the biggest problem is people not having songs in and picking as they come up. That can take much longer than people think. When you get down to 10 songs an hour, that's way too slow for me. I am not going to come back. I have stopped going to a number of gigs I would have liked to go to from time to time, just for that reason. Not long after that, they seem to disappear. The gigs where people keep the songs coming? Those stick around.

Again, I don't mind filler music if it isn't used as cover. But I have been to a lot of different gigs, and it more often than not is used to cover dithering. I don't play it, because it isn't uncommon for the singer to be at the mic (or have the mic in the wireless setup) before the outro for the previous song fades. Very rarely do we have much dead air, and if it is 20 seconds I can easily fill that with trivia, an announcement of a coming event, or a "fake bio" of the upcoming singer.

If I was going to play the type of gig that would have to employ it, I would definitely invest in some videos.

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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 use it to fill the time (perhaps as little as 10 seconds) for the next singer to come up. Dead air inhibits peoples' conversations. I've watched people sitting there chatting, at a volume suitable for the music, the singer finishes, people applaud, and all conversation stops. If the filler music is added up as the applauding dies down, people still clap, I call the next singer (I use Hoster so most are aware of when they are up as I list the next 4 singers at the bottom of the screen), the conversations continue, and the mood is maintained. I think filler music doesn't really hide a slow host - it doesn't take long to figure out you've heard 2 minutes of a song. Even with a small rotation, I get 'em up and get 'em down fast. I use this music to establish a mood as well - a lot of people who frequent my shows love the '50s and '60s music - I have a few playlists that are predominantly those and you can see even nonsingers all of a sudden begin singing along with the filler music.

I don't use it to allow myself to take more time, never have, never will. If for some reason the next singer can't get up in time, wants to switch to the next position (say they're waiting for someone or something like that), I'll call up the next singer in no time at all, with that same little snippet of music playing.

In fact, for a slow host, 15 seconds of dead air can seem like 3 minutes. I hate dead air. It's kind of like having an ice cold blanket thrown over the crowd.

Well, Mick, One thing I can say is my cue time for songs is insanely fast. I'm not bragging, it just is. I type 80 words a minute, and with the "search as you type" feature I can pull up a song in less than a second. For example, "You never even called me by name"... I can pull up by typing "coe nam", click done. I use song slips, but honestly, it takes me longer to take the slip and read it than for someone to request a song verbally. I usually have them cued before they finish speaking.

"Uh, do you have it?"

"Yep, your in."

"Huh?" ...Disbelieving look.

When my regs come in I automatically put them in the rotation, and they frequently just let me pick their first song. When they come up to sing they tell me what they want to sing next. It just flows.

I just looked at Friday's show numbers... that's a really busy night, with a crowded bar... etc. Runs from 9 - 1:30. 58 songs were sung, and that includes two "dance breaks" A cupid shuffle and a booti call. That's about 13 songs an hour. Considering the average song time is 4 minutes the absolute max number of songs you can logically fit it would be 15.... And I know I have times where the singer is on smoke break when I call them up, etc.

With me, I really don't even pay too much attention to it. I put on a play list of songs that I think are appropriate to the venue, and let it fly. My line dance songs are on quick keys so I don't have to look them up.

Like you, I HATE an inefficient show, but to me it's about "energy." Are they laughing, dancing, heads boobing? They were just having a good time with music, and the singer's performance ends.... but hey a cool song comes up so the energy stays... and boom, the next singer comes up and everybody is paying attention. It's all about the fun.

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Good music, good friends, howling good times!

Again we must be doing something wrong since that's our average pay with a disc based show with no filler/bumper music.

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