Karaoke Forums

I realise this has been discussed many many times before, but for those of you who censor your song book according to the clientelle... what is your method for dealing with some of current chart music and children.

Recent songs that spring to mind, are "rockstar - nickelback", "it's not fair - lilly allen" and most lady gaga. If I'm aware of inappropiate content I tend to forwarn parents and let them decide if their child should sing it.

I realise children may not necessary understand what the lyrics are refering to "lying in the wet patch" etc but as an adult watching I feel uncomfortable listening. And some parents (who cannot monitor everything) assume that certain popular artists who appear to market themselves to the family audience are suitable. (I didn't even realise the backing track from bad romance had the lines "i'm a freak ***** baby" in them)

The recent release of S&M by Rihanna is the main track that concerns me, the tune is catchy enough for the younger clientelle to be drawn to it, and already on youtube I have noticed 12 year olds commenting and indicating that they understand the content (which even if they don't a quick search on wiki will enlighten them) and as an adult even if they don't understand the content I do not want to hear/watch them sing it.

All of my venues allow children of any age, providing they are behaved and well supervised and 99.99% (factor in a small percentage of moronic drunks) of the time the adults choose suitable songs for a mixed audience if their are children in the venue... but the kids not fully understanding songs or just hearing and liking the tune on the radio pick some really inappropiate lryical content, rather than songs with "bad" language in them.

So what is everyone else doing (if anything) to deal with young 'uns and poor song choices? Am I being over sensitive? and if not is it really a matter of removing nearly every modern song from my book and depriving adults from singing lively and essentially good tunes???

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'A genius is one who can do anything except make a living'. Joey Adams.

I run a kids' show every month (tomorrow in fact) and what I do is make an announcement at the begnning of the show that there are songs in the book that are definitely for an 'older' crowd...and that parents should make sure when their child fills out a slip that the song is appropriate for them, and for the rest of the room. That is all I can do. Most of the time the kids truly aren't paying attention to what they are singing. And, fact is, they listen to it on the radio - I have begun listening to the 'bubble gum' station lately (Rihanna, Bruno Mars, Enrique Iglesias, Lady Gaga, Flo Rida, etc., etc.) just so I'm up on what the kids like...amazing, they rotate the same 25 songs hour after hour...and the rotation is basically the songs that the kids sing at my show.

My karaoke venue is a family restaurant with a full bar. Children of all ages are allowed as long as they are accompanied by a parent(s) or guardian. The first page of my book has a cautionary note in big letters saying:

“To Parents: Caution – some songs contain adult lyrics. Please monitor your children’s song choices. With over 22,000 songs listed the KJ cannot possibly remember the songs that are inappropriate for kids to sing. To Singers: This is a family restaurant. Kids are present. Please refrain from using bad & obscene language. Rule of thumb: If you wouldn’t say it in front of your mother, don’t say it on stage.” (This statement pretty much cover my own a**).

I monitor PopHits Monthly Urban song releases. I google the lyrics from these particular cds, If the song contains the f / n / c / b words, then those songs will not get listed in my book. Bad words (not cursed words) & sexual innuendos are fine. Almost all titles from PopHits Monthly Pop Edition & also Chartbusters are safe to be listed.

Doesn’t mean to say that I totally censor the songs. Of course not! I still have those songs available. My adult audience knows its fair game after 11:00pm. After 11, the restaurant is closed but the bar is in full swing. Kids or no kids they can sing any “R” rated songs they want.

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To be fortunate enough to derive an income from a source as fulfilling as karaoke music has got to be as close to heaven as we can get here on earth!

When I ran kids shows i'd have to know which songs had questionable content - mainly cussing, so I had books that had <PA> by those songs. It was easy since my current club of 18 years does not allow any swearing on stage so I already had a full list of everything to begin with. Don't even list those songs in my current books. Anytime I add a new song I Google the lyric content on each song for swearing.

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

Just to clarify, I'm not so concerned about swearing... I more worried about content. Nearly all of my songs are radio edits, so the swear words are ommited and the front of my book clearly states that if a song contains any words from the "george Carlin Dirty words sketch" I resevere the right to stop the song if the singers choses not to edit it.

A prime example is S&M rihanna (becuase I can see children wanting to sing it), but an older one would be Hanky Panky Madonna... no bad language what so ever.... but if a 4-17 year old sang it the listening audience (in my opinion) would be uncomfortable.

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'A genius is one who can do anything except make a living'. Joey Adams.

I once ran a private party for a housewarming. I love doing these gigs, because I love having kids come up and sing their hearts out. During this party, a little girl wanted to sing "Billionare" by Bruno Mars. I told her and her mom that their were offensive lyrics in the song, and the mom said "That's okay, I'll say them for her".

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Wam bam thank you m'am.

This has happened at my show, too. I think maybe as adults we worry a little much - it's a great opportunity to have a chat with your child if you are in a place where a child (under 21) sings something that may have questionable content. I don't think it's going to completely traumatize a kid - like I said, they listen to it on the radio all the time.

It is a hard one as you know they are listening to it at home, you know WE listened to racey songs when we were young and you know some parents don't care. And something that is okay for a teen might not be okay for an elementary school kid so it gets overly complicated trying to check the songs.

But some parents do care and don't want to hear this stuff coming out of their kid's mouths. We have a seperate set of books for the kids and basically the songs don't have "language" nor are they about drugs, being drunk, violence or sex. And yes--there are still a few songs left in the book. But it is sad as most of the acts that really appeal more to the youngun's than the older ones--like Katy Perry, Riahanna and Lady Gaga--have at least some inappropriate content in almost every single song.

What has worked for us is to have enough in there that they can sing--Taylor Swift and and other current hits that would be popular but okay lyrics wise and they choose from those and don't miss the others. If someone does ask if we have "Rock You All Night Long" by the Scorpions, then we explain that it might be okay for them to sing but there are some really young kids here so we can't allow it and that seems to be a satisfying explanation. I feel sort of silly but really we aren't expressing shock to them over what they would listen to at home--we are just only offering certain songs for our show.

I might add that so far we have only done "Kids Only" shows and not family or mixed--so it is easier to stick them with Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, etc. and not have that pressure to have more mature songs in the books. It gets more complicated when you have a greater age span, I would imagine.

This site is semi-helpful--it rates new releases for age group and language/sex/violence but it isn't all-inclusive:

http://www.noplaylist.com/bin/npl-csvre ... approved=Y

SBI has started putting out "Clean" and "Explicit" versions of popular songs but they seem to focus more on just taking out the obscenities--the content may still be not for kids.

Last party I played, I had two little girls that couldn't have been any older than 9 or 10 turn in a slip with the 20 Fingers song, Short D!ck man.

Another time I had a little girl.. again.. couldn't have been but 9 or 10 years old, put in a request for Lil Wayne's 'Lollipop' with her mother standing there right beside her.

I looked at the slip.. looked at the kid.. then looked at the mother and said, "Seriously? Have you ever listened to the words of this song?"

"No", the mother said smiling, "We just like the beat."

Something like that I draw the line.. but I have had little kids sing songs like Ke$ha's - Tok ("Before I leave, brush my teeth with a bottle of jack..") or Billionaire by Bruno Mars.

But as a general rule.. I try to avoid situations where there are going to be lots of kids around.. mainly because in those kinds of places, the parents use the KJ as a babysitter while they socialize.

I live in the world of Toddlers and Tiaras, sexting, HBO's Middle School Confessions, and every girl trying to be just like whatever celebrity who gets famous for having a sex tape. Parents are at the Game store to get their kids the most recent Shoot Kill Murder video game and those kids play with their headsets and yell every racial slur and cuss word while playing online. Kids should already have heard the words and there really isn't a thing as "virgin ear". For the Adults there's common courtesy to self edit around kids, much as well for geriatrics in the audience (but we all know that granny and grandpa seen it all and done it all, they probably invented some of those things)

Keep the books with **ADULT** if you have numbers include R or something to distinguish a clean to adult song. I would just remind everyone to Radio Edit themselves or it's funny when the KJ says on the mike "Freakin" "Beep" "N-Word" or if the have a bleeping sound effect to add for the song.

If a parent decides to raise their kids on age inappropriate music, that's their unfortunate choice and they are free to do so. But when they are out in public letting their poor choices spill over onto other peoples' children, that's flat out wrong! A karaoke host has a responsibility to disallow that unless that's the kind of show they want to do, in which case it should be advertised as such.

I sing in a place with an in-house system and an elderly clientelle in the early hours of the night. If a singer comes up with no thought to the crowd he's singing in front of and belts out a song with profanity or any kind of topic that makes the crowd uncomfortable, the owner will promptly delete the song from the system to never be sung again. Many good songs have been lost forever in this bar because some idiot thought it would be funny to sing it before eleven in front of a bunch of people who clearly wouldn't appreciate it.

I still think it's a good policy.
Wheater it's a crowd of kids or a crowd of old folks, there's no need to offer inappropriate or offensive songs when there are so many inoffensive good song alternatives. I don't want my kids or my parents to be forced to listen to that stuff just because some inconsiderate idiot thinks it's cool.

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KNOW THYSELF

Helpful site for guidelines. I like it. Thanks, LL.

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To be fortunate enough to derive an income from a source as fulfilling as karaoke music has got to be as close to heaven as we can get here on earth!