Karaoke Forums

A few years ago (early 2000s), I was at a nice Karaoke place in Nashville (I think). It was a big place with a country line dance area, a disco dance club area, and a Karaoke room. I got there around 8PM and sang a couple of songs and was having a good time. As the night wore on, I noticed that some of the other singers had been up a couple of times since my last song (about 15 in the rotation).

Against my better judgment (I do not normally do this), I went up and asked the KJ when I was up next. He looked around for my slip and it was in the discarded pile. I had put in a country ballad and he pointed to a sign on the wall that I had not noticed till that point that read "No slow songs after 10PM" (They did Karaoke till 1AM). Apparently it is standing policy. I choose a more upbeat country song and turned that in, but then had to convince him that it was not a slow song.

Anyhow, have any of you ever been to a place that had a similar policy? I have sung Karaoke since 1991 at places all across the US but had never seen such a policy before and have not seen one since. Do any of you think this would work at your shows?

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Doing home karaoke since 2000. Setup: Shure SM58 Mic; Sennheiser e825 Mic; JVC XL-MV333 CDG Player / PC Karafun 2; Soundcraft 124fx mixer; QSC GX3 Amplifier; Yamaha BR12 Speakers.

I have seen a couple kj's talk about how they do similar at their own shows. I personally do not agree with it, but under the right circumstances (club) could see it working.

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I've had that happen to me once. Never went back to that venue.

Freedom of song choice is like freedom of speech. It's a slippery slope when you start to filter songs based on speed. It's not like banning songs with profanity. This is more like a personal preference of the KJ. What's next? Banning specific genres?

On busy nights, our policy is "No songs over 5 mins. long after Midnight" This wipes out songs that would normally occupy 2 time slots so that we can get as many people through as possible.

I don't really care if it's slow or not, we will always end on an upbeat song.

That is a new one on me and I have been in the business for years. I understand that some songs are not acceptable and depending on the venue down right offensive. Naturally as a host I try to keep things moving and let the singers sing what they want. I have seen some hosts on here try to play some upbeat bumper music when several ballads have been sung. It's not the hosts job to pick songs for patrons, unless of course they ask for a suggestion.

Nothing worse than thinking that you're going to get one last song in and the last three people sing American pie, PBTDL and the long version of Free Bird. Three people take up the entire last half hour of the show when they could have easily squeezed in 6 or 7 singers if they sang 4 or 5 minute long songs so I like Chip's rule.

Some slow songs can really bring the room down, and run folks off! Most folks go out to have a good time, not cry in their beer. And in my experience going to karaoke here in Florida there are far too many S-L-O-W (@$%&#!) songs attempted/performed.

That said, if I were a KJ I would defer to the venue management regarding rules for or against song selection. Their venue, their rules in my book.

I have removed all songs over 5 minutes from my karaoke file, and all RAP songs. I am exercising my right to play only what I have available. No one can demand that I put songs on my computer that I don't want to...... not even liberals.

BTW I have zero problems filling the venue..... ever.

I seem to recall hearing about a show that stripped the whole song book down to just a few hundred, all upbeat, all crowd pleasing songs.

Was that just a tourist area thing?

Cat's Meow, New Orleans. I sang there once and it was wall to wall standing room only. Two hundred total songs in the late 90's.

some places will be successful with whatever rules and limitations they put on their karaoke show. Some places will not. A tourist city like New Orleans that has an audience that is there for a vacation can get away with putting out a small song list. People might only be there once in their life so they only need to find one song that they would like to sing. If the place is that packed you probably don't get to sing more than once so they don't need to have 100,000 songs to keep a weekly regular crowd interested. I used to watch the live video feed from the Cat's Meow but I don't even know if they still do that.

mrmarog - I have sung at Cats Meow as well (in 2001). It was a brutally slow week in NO, (week after 9/11) but the place was packed. I was there for a couple of hours with some co-workers and I sang twice. It was a lot of fun. I remember that the sound system was pretty good and they had a big fan on one side of the stage blowing directly on the singer. The girl running the show was attractive and very high energy. When I got up to sing (Crocodile Rock) I told her I needed help with the La La La La Las and she did it perfectly and the song got a great response from the audience. The list of singers was kept on a chalkboard next to the stage and I went to put in a second song and they told me I would not get back up before closing. Then a few minutes later, the host tracked me down at the bar and asked me to sing another. It must have made an impression on me because 16 years later I can still remember everything about it despite being intoxicated.

Thanks for the replies my post!

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Doing home karaoke since 2000. Setup: Shure SM58 Mic; Sennheiser e825 Mic; JVC XL-MV333 CDG Player / PC Karafun 2; Soundcraft 124fx mixer; QSC GX3 Amplifier; Yamaha BR12 Speakers.

Fast songs, slow songs it didn't matter last night because everything worked well. Here in Florida the closer to Easter that it gets the smaller the crowds.... not last night. My official start time is 7PM but night last I started at 6:15 because I had 18 singers in attendance and signed up with songs in cue at 6:00.

I made an announcement that my rule is to start the show when I have 15 singers ready to go, but this just seemed too early. I got quite a chuckle from the audience. At 6:15 I had 20 singers so I started the show, to every one's delight. It was an over the top evening! I will post a picture when I get them off my camera.

THANK GOD THAT CUSTOMER SERVICE IS ALIVE AND WELL SOMEWHERE IN THE WORLD.

There are a few venues I attend where a "No Fast Songs after 10PM" policy would be embraced and work just fine!

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C Mc
KJ, FL

I have on several occasions offered to buy the first three singers a free drink if they would change their ballad to an up-tempo song. I get applauses from the crowd on that offer. Sometimes the change in tempo is barely noticeable on some of the changes, but I gave it my best.

Edit: PS This was very early evening last Wednesday. One more show then I am am done for this season (until Nov 1). I'll be on the road ...... again!

The place I think I recall hearing about was on the East coast towards the South - maybe GA or one of the Carolinas. Had the book of strictly upbeat songs and costumes to go with those songs.

So all the songs after 10pm are ballads?

by the look of your pictures you have a different group than the normal karoake singers. tose pictures (nice full bar which is awesome)show your average age is around 65-70. this type of crowd is perfect for this type of library, but in a normal bar i think it would be a generally different story.

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