Karaoke Forums

Do you guys find that Karaoke has become more popular since the American Idol facination?? If so, how?

Have you found that some people DON'T like karaoke as much because of AI? maybe too many people taking it too seriously??

just call me curious george

that's a fair question... and yes, A.I. is mentioned more now than ever before. I do think in some ways it's helped AND HURT the karaoke business. aka William Hung! Oy!


Haven't found so much that people don't like karaoke because of AI, but that may be the people that don't come to my shows!! !

dont know about AI effecting shows in anyway--but the growth of Karaoke in my town --Portland has been exponential in the past 3-4 years. its like theres more karaoke places than CELL PHONES!! even old line blues bars that would never even THINK of allowing it are breaking down and putting karaoke in on weeknights(for Knightshow---i.e. Hoppers on 112th and division).

For everyone thats in LA or subcribes to KS Magazine--check out the story i wrote in this months issue---it addresses this very discussion.

as to karaoke hurting anyone---well its MOST DEFINANTLY KILLING live bands.. Karaoke DJ costs about 1/2 that of a 4-piece band(if there indie mobile dj) and can cost as little as 8$ and hour at the real crappy places. But its just killing live band venue opportunitys-especially classic rock and blues bands(dont even think about jazz bands)--thier venues are just EVAPORTATING(case in point--again in PDX ---The Longhorn)

but AI really has had little or no effect. Its karaoke strangling live bands that has the damaging effect. and live bands HAVE to be able to succeed --becuase their the ones CREATING NEW ORIGINAL MUSIC

the downside of all this karaoke growth is the mediocrity you come across time and time again-----DJ's with no personalitys, little or know music/mixing knowledge and the most dull boring shows you can imagine. I'd say its about a 70/30 ratio of lousy dj's to skilled, talented ones.

and i can speak pretty confidently about that subject as I WRITE MAGAZINE REVIEWS on at least 2 karaoke venues a month. Not just for KS but for PE mag in portland and Karaoke Review in Seattle/Tacoma

anyway its late tonight and Im running on at the keyboard.

_________________
"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

Sounds like you'd rather have live bands over karaoke by your talk? If a band is GOOD enough, they will keep a following which will be enough to have a venue keep them. It's the bands that can't cut it, or just plain suck that don't draw anyone in & the venues shut down live music because there isn't anyone worth hiring.
Karaoke for as little as $8 per hour - at the "crappy places"??? That's $32 bucks for a $4 hour night. That's ludacris even for a scumbag multirigger.
If a band is to succeed, they will need to be able to good enough to draw a crowd to make places take notice - or as most are doing it now, selling music by the internet. Record companies take notice to that as well & watch internet sales & snag the ones that are doing good.

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

I'm assuming the $8 a night is a place the provides everything and just hires the KJ as a part time employee. BTW, I'd never do a show for $8/hour - even if all I had to do was show up.

Yes, I think karaoke has become more 'fashionable' since AI. There are comments and jokes about AI that I hear at shows (especially contests).

I agree that it has hurt some bands because it's a little harder to get gigs now, but in many respects it cuts out the riff-raff. The bands that do play regular gigs are the cream of the crop. Besides if they really want to play and can't find anyplace that has live music, we have a number of venues here in Alaska that still have live bands a couple times a week (sometimes more). Just move to Alaska and..... nevermind. Stay away. We like Alaska the way it is... just come visit and leave money.

Karaoke is definitely on the upswing. I think people may initially come out to karaoke to see if they are 'good enough' or end up there with friends and find they really enjoy it. And just like drugs - karaoke is very addictive!

$8 dollars an hour is for the button pushers that work at crappy clubs that own their own systems... I would say the bottom tier fly by night mobiles charge around 75... as far as portland going karaoke crazy now... puhleeeze... change your definition- only include karaoke shows worth a damn to go to because 80% of the shows out there I wouldn't recommend to my worst enemy... with that in mind there are only a FEW places that actually DO karaoke- the others are venues that are horrible beyond belief or try to be some kind of combination dance club/karaoke/open mic entertainment... I have been doing karaoke in the area since 1990 and nothing will be more popular than what it was in the early to mid 90's... sorry but the recent karaoke "explosion" is pretty much a dud... but what do I know...-tig

I've often had the band -vs- karaoke argument with a friend of mine.

He argues (incorrectly, as does Kurt) that karaoke is killing live music.

It's been my contention that bands are klling live music. Why would people want to hear a mediocre cover band when they can listen to essentially the same thing at karaoke?

It really comes down to economic realities. When a venue can book Big Mike Karaoke for X dollars a night and fill the place, what point is there in hiring "A Band" for three times as much money? The building can only hold so many people, and they are only going to drink so many beers, so what sense is there in putting out so much more money for entertainment?

As Lonnie said, the really good bands will get shows, they will get a following and they will get noticed. The poor to mediocre bands are the ones who will gig occasionally, and in the meantime come to my packed karaoke shows and (@$%&#!) about how karaoke is killing live music.

_________________
Spreading the karaoke gospel

Amen big mike... I too am tired of hearing karaoke killing live bands... the quality of bands is their biggest downfall, IMHO, and with today's music with all the studio created vocal and sound effects it is difficult for many bands to replicate that sound... at least with karaoke I can get the same crappy cover songs but at least the music sounds fairly decent a live band is limited to the couple hundred songs (or more ) that they have in their sets- a karaoke show has thousands to choose from... the financial side for the club is also a reason and your example is right on- a club can pay me 200+ per night or they can pay a band 500 for the same space to fill... the really exceptional bands and sounds will survive as they always will- survival of the fittest... tig

I think it also depends on where Karaoke is replacing bands. I don't ususally go to big places for karaoke (like big bars - in Edmonton would be COok County Saloon. They have big stars come and play there with their bands, like Emmerson Drive and Paul Brandt). Even if there was no such thing as karaoke, I still probably would not go as the smoke and loud music (usually makes my ears ring for three days after going to that place) would drive me crazy!

I ususally go to the small places, liek the Boston Pizza's in town that have karaoke. At least you can sit, get a good meal, have a few drinks, and be able to talk, cause if you dont sit near the spekers, the sound is not too loud at all.

I also go to Albert's Family Restraunt a lot, and to a little town called Devon for karaoke, which has no set up for a band anyway.

There are still alot of band that play around here and a lot of people that host them. in the Edmonton Journal it usually lists bands playing, and there is also a free magazine that you can get that lists everything from bands to karaoke.

again, here's my two cents. I'm not only a newbie to this site, but a newbie to Karaoke in general, so I might just be caught up in the novelty and excitement...... which I don't think will go away anytime soon! haha!
so as for the live band vs karaoke discussion, I have to say that I've been to far more karaoke shows than live band shows and enjoy karaoke far more. Not because of money or cost, but because I find karaoke MUCH more interesting. Everyone's just out to have a good time, and I find it VERY interesting to see how different people sing certain songs. You know "making them their own". And come on! the drunk ones are HILLARIOUS! I'd much rather hear a bunch of different people from all walks of life sing a bunch of different songs rather than the same people sing the same type of music ........all..........night.........long.
but that's just me!

As far as band vs. karaoke, the bottom line is I want to see a show. If I go to see a band, I don't care if it's ZZ Top, I don't want them to just sit there and play their songs, otherwise I'd sit at home, throw on a CD, and get sloshed. Same thing with the karaoke shows that consist of "That was Bill, this is Bob"... dead air. If a band puts on a good show, they will survive. Unfortunately, it does seem like a lot of KJ's are surviving even without putting on a good show.

Ain't that the truth. Went to a place last Sat. Nice bar, packed house. They run 7 nights, advertising "Simply the Best" & experience the "Wall of Sound". This was absolutely the worst i've experienced. Sounded like 2 tinny sounding 10" speakers that were feeding about every other word. No stage area, the singer just kind of stood out in front of the system with the back to the audience since the screen was behind them. There may have been another TV somewhere else, but didn't see it. Host was boring - to me. The books were on OMG level. Consisting of approx 1200 songs (none of the songs I sing). Copies of disc covers were the new pages. It supposedly had sections for title & artist but it was so scrambled throughout I didn't find one. There were also more copies of disc covers toward the back as well. Couldn't tell what kind of companies they used, it was their own numbering system, but the disc cover copies were mostly Music Maestro & Sweet Georgia Brown - which anyone who knows me, knows how I feel about both these companies. Anyways, we finished our beer & left.

"Simply the Best" , yeah because there is nothing else around there. We were out of town toward the Canadian border off of I-5.

Sorry got off track there, just couldn't believe how packed a CRAP system/host was.

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

I could not agree with you more! I absolutely hate karaoke hosts that have no order whatsoever in their book. Who wants to sit there reading pages and pages so that you can find a song that you may be able to sing?

HOW ANNOYING!

I don't think that Karaoke is killing bands, I think bad bands are killing bands. If you go somewhere and see a horrible band, not only will you avoid the band again, but probably the bar too. (Take note bar owners!)Getting back to the original question, I do think AI has had an effect on Karaoke's popularity. Seems like the last three years Karaoke's popularity has exploded. Not all because of AI, I think economics for bar owners has something to do with it, but at least some has to be attributed to it. [/quote]

_________________
I'm going off the rails......

Im new at doing Kj/Dj shows. But Ive played in bands for nearly 20 years.
I dont see ,in my area anyway, Kj/Dj hurting bands. Its two different worlds. I live in a small populated area and bands dont get booked on week nights very much,but karaoke shows are popular on tuesday,wensday and friday nights. You can't hardly find Karaoke on Saturday nights its all live bands.
I just cant imagine any club owner any where replacing a band with Kj/Dj show its just totally different.
By the way Im one of those people who hated Karaoke and Djs and now I are one.All it took was one visit to a Karaoke show and I was hooked.
Alot of bands are very jealous of the popularity of Karaoke and Djs Although they wont admit it. I realize now that was my problem. I honestly think bands have nothing to worry about though.

What I have found around here is that the vocals in the live bands are not very good at all. It seems that most bands consist of a group of people that can play instruments (musicians) but they don't seem to hold a candle to the singers I have heard at the Karaoke Shows.(and may I add the singers in the showcase here on this site) The bands should hire a vocalist in most cases, but instead they all take turns singing the songs they think they cover the best and hide thier voices in the mix so most people can't tell they really stink. The other thing is they crank the music up so loud that even when you scream into the ear of the person next to you they can't you. The band seems to think that volume somehow makes up for quality.
Every week I am more and more impressed by the vocal talent that I hear at Karaoke and I always tell people I meet that I think alot of the singers at Karaoke are better than the Big Names That seem to get alot of money for thier CD's and shows.
That's just my two cents.

over here in england we have a similer problem

firstly bar and club owners would rather pay peanuts for karaoke and they end up with a dead host. which is a pain because kj's like me spend a fortune on equipment and disks and work to recoup what we spent and earn a living, what the owners want to pay would just cover the cost of a disk.

secondly and this grates me.....
owners of clubs will pay 4 times as much to a pro singer......who sings to karaoke tracks grrrrrr

hey but i love karaoke

cheers