If you are the KJ ...get used to it, it's normal. If you are a patron, I consider that a failure by the KJ to control the show. If the KJ solicits applause, it usually will snowball for the better singers, If the kj is lax, most venues will turn dead on the applause meter after a couple weeks or even hours.

If a singer finishes their song and the audience hesitates, I always add emphasis and wrangle the applause out of them. I believe that it is my duty to the singer as host of the show. It is just another aspect of full service karaoke like sound, lights, song selection, etc.

My rule, as a singer, is that I clap for everyone--regardless of the quality of the performance--because karaoke isn't necessarily about how the singer sounds. On the rare occasions I have hosted karaoke (I am now up to having run a grand total of ten shows for people in the past five years), I always encourage some kind of audience response.

The only people I don't clap for are people I have a genuine, personal dislike for, because I'm a mean, petty jerk.

Everyone should clap regardless of performance. We used to say in 1990 when I was first starting karaoke, "Clap because they were good or clap simply because they are done - everyone that goes up to sing deserves applause of some sort!"

I probably clap especially hard for the bad ones hoping it'll guilt other folks into joining in. It could be the thing that makes that person's night.

HERE'S MY TAKE ON THE LACK OF APPLAUSE FOR A VERY GOOD SINGER. The venue is usually stocked with mediocre to bad singers and they resent the singer who comes in and makes them feel bad about their own singing because he sings so much better than they do. Have you ever heard someone get called up right after you and you hear them say that they don't want to follow "HIM". It's their own insecurity and jealousy that causes their behavior. Don't take it personally. They clap for the bad singers because they think that the bad singer needs encouragement to get back up on stage again., They feel that the really good singers already know that they are good singers and they don't need any encouragement to get back on stage. Some folks wish that the good singers stayed home. That way, they could feel like the big fish in the small pond for a night.

Not the case at our shows, we typically get good singers on any given night as a rule, but even on nights when we get the less than avg singers, even the bad singers do not necessarily applaud unless coaxed some nights. Just really depends on the whole atmosphere as a whole. If applause is happening, then everyone will generally get in on it, if not, sometimes the host can coax the applause, other nights even that don't help!

It also depends on who is there for karaoke and who isn't. I've found that on nights where the majority of the bar is just there to drink and talk to one another, there is less clapping overall regardless of the singer's performance.

I can see that on a bar with a 'karaoke night', but ours is a 'karaoke bar' (7 nights since '92). If people don't expect karaoke, they shouldn't be there in the first place. Most of the people that come are there for karaoke or darts (on the other side of the club).