Karaoke Forums

This is so true. I went to a new place to sing with a friend and the KJ was playing dance music between each song. It made it a long night. I waited about 40 minutes before coming up and asking when I would get up. He said "there are a lot of dancing to be done so it will be about an hour." I got up and left, they lost my drink revenue for the night.

My buddie and I agree that why even advertise as Karaoke when you only do half a karaoke? I mean the reason why we showed up is because we were told that there is a karaoke, not dancing half the time. We were disappointed.

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Seize the day and SING!!!

We are karaoke only and do not have any DJ discs or filler music and anyone who hire us know that right up front.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

I must confess, there are two no-karaoke instrumental songs that I do play.  I usually start the night with Booker T & The MG's "Green Onions."  I do this so the bartender knows it's time for karaoke and it gives him a moment to fade out the house system.  I let it play for just a minute or two and fade it out and then welcome everyone.

Then when the last song of the night is over, I kick on another instrumental tune; another oldie, 'The Horse."  (old pep band tune in my hey day.)  Again this let's the bartender know everything is over and I start breaking down.  When the "Horse" fades out he can then fade up the house system.

Kelly

Don't get me wrong--I don't mind when there's a break of about 25 minutes or so and they play dance music.  What I don't like is when they play filler music AFTER EVERY KARAOKE SONG.  That drives me batty.

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I love being a mom!

See,  Now if you said "Time is Tight", I'd show up in my 60's funk attire with a female partner.  Put on ice-skates,  and show you "funk" Ice skating at it's best !
That is the song EVERY aspiring Hammond B-3 player learns  Great workout on both manuals, pedals, and controlling the Leslie cabs...  Not easy... I loved playing that song

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

One of the regular karaoke bars around here does filler dance music at times. Sometimes occasionally between karaoke songs, and other times for like a 30 minute stretch. They claim it allows folks to relax and some dance, etc - by kind of mixing it up. As a karaoke singer though it drives me crazy. They also have a lot of their staff sing in rotation which is also a bit annoying.

Also had a time at another place with another KJ I can't stand where the dude cycled through rotation and passed me with a couple of other people that were behind me in rotation. I went and mentioned this, and he told me I'd be up soon. Another singer sung, and then he announced last song of the night, and he put in some new guy. I was pissed and went and had some choice words with the dude and basically said I'd never be back when he was there. He didn't seem to care. I haven't been back since, and I do a lot of karaoke at times. That particular bar can't really afford to lose patrons, and many nights there is almost no one there.

But yeah, I agree for karaoke I don't like filler music, and I don't like staff singing much, and I hate screwed up unfair rotations.

I've done plenty of karaoke clubs though where you sing and people dance to your song. That is probably how it should be done.

I don't always mind the KJ singing if he is entertaining and doesn't over do it. Used to have a cool dude down here - Jimmie Lee, and he was great at keeping the positive energy going, and keeping people interested. He was a pretty intense singer too - very loud usually. His specialty is he would do a 'double' or 'triple shot' of a particular singer. That's probably during slow times though as otherwise people tend to get mad.

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The Truth Is Out There

Chuck thanks for the compliment for my honey!!!  He is awesome. Sometimes I wish he would KJ again..But I am selfish and I like him home with me at night..

So I guess what I have read here is the way to get rid of the hack KJ's is to stop going to their shows....

What I want to know is, if you know you can do better, how do you approach the owner or manager and ask them to make a change..How about some suggestions on that....

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Will sing or fish for food!!I'm not quite right!!

Getting Rid of a Hack The way I've done it in the past was approach the manager about subbing when the KJ was sick/vacation/etc.  Some hack KJs don't even think about the aspect that they may miss a night through no intent of their own and have no backup.  Then I come in and show how it would run if I was behind the equipment.  Worked for me twice before.  Once I got the gig until personal issues closed me down and the second one the hack learned how to KJ to keep his job.  Depends on how much time you want to invest on wooing the manager/owner.

As for dance music.  One place I actually put dance tunes into the rotation (manager wanted a 'set' and I didn't so we compromised).  That way there was one good boogie down dance number an hour.  Everyone was happy

i used to kj...the place was always hopping every night except tuesdays!

i usually started the show singing. sometimes i picked a song that i had no business singing.  usually gave people who were afraid to sing the thought that if sucked that bad they could do better.

i watched the crow for "in between" music.  i just let my disk player play and fade out the music as each singer comes up.  sometimes i would get requests for a dance song.  my job was to get singers up. period.  i've been known to throw 80 to 100 songs a night.  

the "in between" music was because i had to pee.  that's it.

sure was a lot of fun.  but as chuck said, the guy that bought the place has an in house system and since he owns it he makes the rules.  the sound sucks, the equipment sucks and he will not pay to fix anything.  he also did not pay very well.

i was know for walking around listening to the sound, making sure the mix was right.  i even asked my customers if it sounded right.  made them feel they were really a part of the show.

i do miss the kj'ing alot.  i enjoy people and i love watching them have a great time.

one of my closing lines was...if you like the show, tell your friends, if not, tell me.

hardly ever got anyone complaint.

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[scroll]we're men, manly men, we're men in tights[/scroll]

Seems the best way to get rid of a hack if you are going to sing is to avoid the KJ, or complain to management. If you are a KJ you can come in and outperform them at a better introductory price.

Chuck perhaps you can get rid of the ones you don't like by a combination of this technique, maybe encouraging a good KJ you know to go and try and steal the hack's job.

PS: I also notice that a lot of them go out of business when other karaoke venues open up with a better show. PSPS: On that note, a lot of the clubs down here are coming out with LCD's or Plasma flat panels all over the club to view lyrics and watch other material during the shows. Is this common elsewhere?

We need to get Jeffieoke to start his own show. I keep trying to talk him into it.

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The Truth Is Out There

Good question, I think the bar owner at our old stompin' grounds listens to too many customer complaints and will not do what is needed to improve. Too afraid to offend the clientele. Before he bought the club, it was packed from karaoke. It went over better than live bands. I'd like to see what the new KJ  there thinks about working for that club.

Phatrat and Meep70 are the two KJs that I know personally that are on this board. Phatrat was the best KJ ever. He knew how to get everyone in the club interested nd involved. He kept the place jumpin' and packed. He did all the things he mentioned above too and had an open dialog with the clientele.

Meep70 is well known in our area and very well respected by the other KJs. He could make anyone sound good.

Personally I think there shouldn't be any filler music and the KJ should limit his own songs as long as you have singers waiting to sing.  If you're going to have karaoke at a club, the singers should come first.

Melinda, I use filler music to keep the "dead air" between singers... also, this helps when you have a ballad he!! night, or your massive "headbanger" surge. I use the filler music (again, only as long as it takes to get the next singer up there) to help change the pace of the room, remind folks of good songs to sing, or just to make my show unique.

But I'm TOTALLY against whole songs between singers. I don't like "dance sets" but do understand the need for that every now and then.

The KJ who was on the phone so much, I might have been a little unfair to her. If she was telling a new pilot how to land a plane then she should pay more attention to the phone call then her singers.


I was assuming that she wasn't doing this.

You must either have a 9 hour show or a time machine.

At an average of 4 minutes a song and 30 seconds between singers, you are talking seven hours and thirty minutes to get in 100 songs. With setup and teardown, you must be there all day!!

Or are you just that good that you bend the fabric of space-time itself during your karaoke show???

I turn singers over about every 45 seconds from the time one song ends to the time the other begins and get in about 50-60 songs in a 4.5 hour show.

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C Mc
KJ, FL

I'll reply to this for him.(Only cause we are married.)  It was an in house system so there was not any set up or tear down.  The show started at 8pm and ran until 1:45am and sometimes until 2am when the lights would come up.

I know he has had aspirations of doing time travel, I have not witnessed it.  LOL

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Will sing or fish for food!!I'm not quite right!!

I had figured that, but thought Topher would explain hisself.

yup, six hours times sixty mins is 360 mins. If every song averages 4 mins long, then yep, that's 90 songs.

But, there are a lot of songs that are 5-6 mins!!

Either way, that's a humpin' show! Good job you two!

I'll accept HYPERBOLE as the only correct answer here.

Again, there is not a line of singers that start IMMEDIATELY after the other one ends. You have to allow 30-45 seconds for each singer to come up. Even at 80 songs, that is about 40-50 minutes during the 6 hour show that it takes just for the singers to come up. That leaves a little over 5 hours to fit in 80 songs, meaning each song would have to average exactly 3:45 for you to get that many singers in. At 100 singers, each song would have to average 3:00 each. I'm still not buying the 100 songs a night, or even 90, or even 80!!!

Count how many actual slips you take next show and let me know!! I bet it is closer to the 12 or so an hour the rest of us pull off, not 17 an hour. I just don't think it is physically possible!!

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C Mc
KJ, FL

Oh I believe it Topher!

When I started out, I was at a show that was 7 nights a week. Started right at 9pm... went to 2:45AM, and I tell ya, there were nights when we did 70 singers!

SOME of the karaoke classics are 2:30 to 3:00, and that DOES help alot in the amount of singers an hour. I averaged 14-15 usually...

until they came up and wanted to do Bohemian Rhapsody, or Stairway! ! "One Bourbon" would kill it. Okay, we're at 9 singers this ROTATION! !

Hey, like Billy Joel always says:

"If you're gonna have a hit, you gotta make it fit, so they cut it down to 3:05."

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C Mc
KJ, FL