Karaoke Forums

there's probably been threads in the past about different theme nights y'all have tried during karaoke

point me to a thread, otherwise, any ideas out there?

i'm wondering: when planning a theme night, is it best to give fair warning about it, or just do it without warning? because, a wise member from the group outkast once told me: "you can plan a pretty picnic, but you can't predict the weather"

my boss kicked around the idea of doing a motown night one of these days

i'd like to do this again, but i need all the stars to align the way it did:

at one venue, a few years ago, i hosted: a 90s karaoke night, followed up the next week by an 80s karaoke night, followed up on the third week by a 70s karaoke night

thing is, none of it was planned at all beforehand. i just announced it impromptu when the night started and forced the crowd to go along. and they fell in line. ha. back-to-back weeks for 3 fridays in a row.

again, this happened years ago. at that point, i personally hadn't heard of anyone else doing theme nights, (though i'm sure it's been done) but I wasn't out to try to match someone's idea. i remember: by chance, i happened to notice at the start of an ordinary karaoke night as i was setting up, hosting, that the first 3 random songs i chose to play happened to be from the 1990s, while i was trying to think of a 4th song to play. a light bulb went off. i said to the crowd right then and there, "hey folks, tonight, i'm only playing only 90s music in-between karaoke. i'm not taking requests. sorry if you don't like it." i had been a KJ at this venue for a few years already, so i had leeway to do what i wanted.

one of the regulars came up and said "so are you restricting us to only singing 90s songs?" she was misunderstanding me. i told her, "sing whatever you want. i just don't want folks to get mad at me that i'm not gonna play any current music tonight. i'm only playing 90s--just for tonight." she was like oh. then said "hey why not force everyone to sing 90s music too?" trust me, i hadn't thought that far. i was only interested in the challenge for me of playing only 90s music for one night without getting reprimanded or stopped in some way. i remember that night i came in with restless energy. when i had the idea, all of the sudden i was hyped to see it through. i work at this venue weekly. i was hyped that on that night, i had a challenge.

so i put it out there but i told folks i wasn't enforcing it if they didn't sing a 90s song. they could sing whatever they liked, but i'm strictly playing 90s music so don't wonder why i'm not playing newer music. but folks lined up and everyone started only singing 90s songs! and singers kept asking folks to keep the party going and keep the karaoke in the 90s. and with me playing 90s music, the night was a blast. i got away with playing songs that i never get to play which was fantastic. none of it was planned so it was a challenge doing it on the fly--finding 90s songs that didn't interfere with what someone could potentially sing, just to keep the party going.

the best part was folks who always do their signature songs week-to-week finally broke down and tried something new, as in something from the 90s. and i got the brilliant idea (from the song lyrics I was hearing that night) to start talking in 90s talk over the mic. so when someone did well, i'd say "man, that song was really bumpin'. that was really rad!" folks got a kick out of it. folks followed up with 90s dances. instead of playing the wobble, i played "the booty call." i played 90s dancehall, 90s grunge, man, it was great. i shoulda realized that it hadn't been done where i'm at so folks really went along with it. why question it?

so, i was still in the glow of it all week long and i kept thinking i'll do a 90s night part II when i'm back again on friday. but as friday approached, it didn't feel right. and i struck that idea down. i was thinking what else can i do? i wanna have fun again but i don't want to do the same show we did last week even if it's with different 90s music. then it hit me. 80s night. so, same thing: i got to the venue and made an announcement that we tried 90s night on the spontaneous fly last week, tonight we're doing 80s night. the same way. it's not enforced, but try your best to join in the fun. i'm only playing 80s music in-between singers. and it worked! 90s night was better, but 80s night was a very close second. folks were break dancing. you heard a lot of synthesizer music. hair bands.

third week rolls around and i'm determined to do 70s karaoke night to close it out. but it was crazy challenging. folks were half into it. the older folks loved it. younger, not so much. i still played 70s music all night but i was way off the mark. because 70s is a tough decade. rise of punk. disco. classic rock. rock. big R&B bands, start of hip-hop. bob marley and reggae. anti-war music. i got so much respect for the 70s. this was the only night i had to prep for. and now it had been like 3 weeks since i played the 'new music' folks like to hear and get drunk to.

i say all that to give y'all bits if you haven't done a show like this, what to expect.

you can plan it, but trust me, the night comes around and you may not be able to do it right because a birthday party will be there or the bartenders may be against it. you need a venue that trusts you to lead. you also need a big crowd there too to keep it fun and keep it going. i'd say it's up to you to tell your regulars beforehand what you're doing so they can help out. i didn't. they fell in line, though. i'd say keep the idea in the back of your mind and wait for the right audience & atmosphere to spring the trap.

watch what you play on 'decades night'. don't play a song in-between singers that will take away from a karaoke song idea. like, someone who wants to participate, don't take a song away from them by playing it already--which is hard. on 90s night, someone will wanna sing vanilla ice's "ice, ice baby" so you may have to sit on playing that.

it'd be nice to plan it and make it a big event. that way folks can come dressed up for the decade in 90s clothes or 80s fashions, etc. but again, if you plan it, the weather could betray you, anything can fudge up the night. i'd say try it first on a whim and see if you can plan it out next go around.

by the way, at the end of 90s and 80s night, you couldn't tell me it was the 21st century. karaoke is about 4 hours long, so really it felt like a 4-hour 90s concert and 4-hours 80s concert. i had such a buzz by the end of the night of feeling back in time. i didn't realize how much one decade could have a particular sound. a particular energy. like the 80s synthesizers were echoing. an 80 or 90s song will spark a memory of a particular video to having everybody dancing like it, like "walk like an egyptian" or something. remembering movie scenes like if i played simple minds "don't you forget about me" everyone raises their fist like the breakfast club. but you gotta hit as many music genres as you can. when you're doing a decade night you gotta be fair to the entire decade and go from 00-09.

it was funny when folks challenged me on a song whipping out their iphones to wikipedia it. you hear classics so much you forget the year it came out. i had to remind myself that bob marley is 70s music. playing "da butt" is 80s music.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=29326&hilit=karaoke+theme
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=29419&hilit=karaoke+theme
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=28598&p=370452&hilit=karaoke+theme#p370452

And you’ll find a lot more just by clicking search & typing in your search query, example: “theme nights” (without the quote marks of course)

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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!

We do every Friday night, but in a different way. we use the theme, for example colors, and you find bands or songs with a color in the name. and getting inventive counts as well (amarillo by morning for colors as amarillo is yellow in Spanish, or independence day for a places theme because of independence Missouri) and at midnight I bring up our wheel of crazy on screen and spin to find next week's theme so they can start to get their selections ready over the next week.
our wheel is on the website http://www.paradigmkaraoke.com/wheel and as we come up with new theme ideas we can just add them to the wheel.

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Paradigm Karaoke, The New Standard.......Shift Happens

We had one place for 12 years, and we would do a theme night once a month. We always announced the next theme a month in advance and the regulars would turn this into a monthly costume party, going all out for the theme.

+1

I do a quarterly theme night. 80s night is always the best attendance and participation, by far!

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C Mc
KJ, FL

nice lookin' website, Bill. I like the spin the wheel

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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!

Has anyone tried Karaoke Kards as a fun activity ? I am awaiting mine after having placed an order

I have ordered a set but so far, no one at the shows I frequent has been interested in trying it.

-James

thank you Brian.

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Paradigm Karaoke, The New Standard.......Shift Happens