General Music Chat

I have to confess, I would consider myself a musician (vocalist) and I am torn when it comes to karaoke.

1) The beer-drinking fun loving party guy in me loves the party atmosphere of karaoke and singing my favorite songs to an eager audience. I mean as a musician, honestly it's really really difficult to get an audience to pay attention to unknown material no matter how good it may be. But in karaoke, all you gotta do is pick a Bon Jovi song, sing it well, and you get love from the crowd. Rock star moment. It's a quick fix where you get to sing and entertain.

BUT..

2) The musician in me thinks that karaoke is essentially "evil" for musicians. It's way cheaper and safer to hire a KJ and some KJ's even charge a dollar per song. So the audience is actually happy about PAYING to entertain themselves! Musicians often play for free -- can you imagine if you had to pay 5 dollars each song you played as a band? A lot of venues in NYC that used to offer live music have gone the Karaoke route. It's kinda sad. It just makes more financial sense to a bar to hire a KJ than a band for many reasons.

It sucks.. I love karaoke.. and I hate it at the same time lol.

-victor

Hey Vic,

Yeah , most of us over 40 got to actively see and exp. the slow death of the local venue live music scene as it fell pray to the (singing machine people)...I would imagine that most on here would not remember a time when EVERY venue including school dances,had live music...Playing 6 nites a week was common for me 75-94...91-94, I competed with those people in Chicago.. I took my SQ1 and sequenced 105 tunes, played guitar and sang 45 tunes a nite...I made the same $$$ as those people but that was OK..I always started my show by sayin All the music you'll hear tonite was exclusively played note for note BY ME.
That got to be boring and really made me miss my road buddies...The more I drank, the more I "imagined"and play acted like they were there... ....As technology really progressed in the mid 90's, I finally gave up..
Now , I have to deal with some local people who still actively play AND go out to the kareoke bars...Ive seen the heart and soul in these vocalists participating and feel sorry for them...Most cant find a band who can do the material they wanna sing....Even if they could , the places to play would be VERY FEW...Because????.... Yeah , it s just like anything else.Steam engines to diesel for example...I can now understand the old steam engineer who had to concede to the new diesel engine era starting in the early 60s'...I think we kinda have to become 2 people...Thats why I play acoustic music AND play drums in a rock band ...I get to play 30's &40's jazz/swing/BG AND 70s to current rock...
The acoustic live music scene is making a come back around here though..Maybe theres hope.....

John

Everything goes in cycles, so there's hope that Kara-jokee will be gone in our lifetime, and live music will come back.

John, I see what you are saying.. It's so nutty how many musicians you will find doing karaoke, most of them singers.. I can tell within nanoseconds of them getting the mic.. they way they hold it, dont even look @ the screen..

I got into the whole musician thing in the mid 90s so I really don't ever remember there being so many live bands except only at show venues, not like at a bar or something. That sounds very cool.

I would be totally cool with doing the accoustic thing with a conga if I could just find the musicians.. where the hell are they? All I need is a good accoustic guitarist and a conga dude and I'm game!

Outtahand, I hope yer right!

I've noticed that up here in the frozen north we've had a steady decline in the karaoke scene with many bars going back to live bands on the weekends and the karaoke stuff maybe on a mid week night. There's also been a start up of open mic jams at a couple of places here too and that's been a lot of fun. It's nice to get up there and jam with a couple of new people with no pressure. Mostly doing the straight up acoustic scene so I just grab a djembe, sometimes congas and a few other little additives and go have a bit o fun with the crowd. Don't give up hope that the karaoke scene won't ever die. It can be a fun night out but it can also sometimes be an adventure in "just how far off key can they really go?" headaches. Maybe you'll want to approach one of your local bars and suggest an open mic jam night.

Although jamming is fun "open mic night" is not the greatest thing for the working bands. It's like many things in this new world, internet corps making money off people free labor, Google releases a free copy of SkectUp so users will model buildings in their area, for free, for google earth, which is to google benefit not the user.

And I see "open mic night in bars as the same ... making money off the jammers how work for free and paying the host band minumum wage, while the entertainment draws in people to spend money on booze, which is to the bars benefit.

Ron

As a "Theatre" minor, I used to do it every Friday night. It was the norm for people in our department. (the weirdos) lol

We all used to get really tanked and do a couple of tunes.

I remember some of us would do duets. Some of us would do show tunes. (cold shiver) Some of us would start out doing a tune and then insert stuff. (snicker)

The really creative ones would get attention by inserting material where it didn't belong. i.e. I knew a guy who would do the first few likes of a Danzig tune, before he sang "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds". (Mother, Can you keep them in the dark for life)

It's just for fun. If you enjoy it, then enjoy it. If you don't want to do it, don't. It was a good way to attract attention at very least.

Yes dude,
I agree with your experience...but at the same time it is a great tool for practice if need be....keep up your voice, its nice...bluesyrosey

I must tell you, I am a "Geezer". from the old school. I still remember when there were plenty of venues for musicians to play. I remember when the clubs treated you with extra respect, just because you were a musician. I can even remember when the clubs were all vying for you (if you sounded pretty good). Most of the younger musicians haven't experienced or seen that kind of attention from local clubs. In the good times, if for some reason you were unhappy with the club you were playing in, you could go down the street, or across the street and start playing music in a different club tomorrow night. Local musicians, could actually make a living playing music in they'er home town.
BUT, ofcourse this was before Disco and Karoke. And, also mothers against drunk drivers.
As a musician, I can't and won't support Karoke. It has deffinately knocked many musicians out of work. All those Karoke venues, used to be LIVE music venues.

Bluesyrosey
I visited your profile, and listened to Song of Love. I like it.
Your photo had suggested a different sounding voice to me. When I heard the timber and fullness of your voice, I was pleasantly surprised.
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I like hearing your kind of creativity; too bad we live on opposite sides of the country . . .
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Do you have a Myspace page?
Mine is:
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http://www.myspace.com/alanbradleygroup
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I was listening to your music as I type. Of the 4 posted songs, you'd probably like "Folks I Knew (If You Catch Me Crying) and "Molasses Blues" most.
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Do you do anything upbeat?

Rhythm Man,
Thanks for the compliments from a pro, non karoke person! Yes, I am working on more upbeat songs and putting a more modern twang to my style. As my playing improves, my songs start evolving... I really like your song "Folks I knew" nice vocal excanges going there in Folksy way.
Yes, It would be a blast jamming and bummer about the distance. I wish you the best in your music and I have a my space address:
http://myspace.com/rosalindasdream

Music is emotion - and there's a lot of different emotions to explore, eh?
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Best wishes . . .

Karoake is frought with career landmines. I went out with some friends in Tokyo one night, to a karaoke bar, and did a purposely hammed up and schmaltzy version of "Bridge over Troubled Water" after several scotch on the rocks. They took me totally seriously, and gave me a standing ovation, even asking me if I'm going to record it.

Jesus H Christ.

further advanced your career would be if you started doing some cover tunes? Just think how wonderful it would be if all the venues that have live bands switched to karaoke or DJ's? Just think how much money they could save? Just think Irminsul if you could become a professional karaoke singer how it would broaden your musical horizons? Tokyo could have been the start of something big if you just had an open mind. Hell, there's karaoke bars all over the world. Berlin, Buenos Aires, Topeka, Schenectady, Melbourne. Think of all the places you could get drunk, sing cover tunes, and make MONEY. THIS COULD BE THE START OF SOMETHING REALLY BIG, IRMINSUL. Eventually you could get on American Idol. Can't wait. Later...

hey...know what you mean about the whole karoake thing, but having been out of the circle for so long, it's cool to sing a bit of Chuck Berry and Stones stuff in a small English pub, with like-minded people, a little drunk maybe, but we don't have to pay to sing....guess i should get off my ass and look for a band of guys my age and start again.