Karaoke Forums

As I sit here thinking about how karaoke has change over the past 10 yrs I kinda stand in awe..from the people ..I hardly see anyone that used to go out to karaoke..no books..online QR codes..half the artist on the charts I dont even know...no disc..downloaded songs... to even the kjs that used to post on here ........its kinda mindblowing and depressing at the same time
I have never been one who likes change....I guess with me turn 60 this year I guess I better get use to it...
Am I the only one that feels this way???

No, you're not the only one... Heck, I've got 20 years on you, and I feel the same way. Luckily, when I moved across the country to Nova Scotia a couple of years ago, I found a bunch of folks who are happy to keep karaoke traditions... nothing flashy or very technical... no cell phone requests or kiosks... no, or at least very little rap or hip-hop... mostly pop and real country... decent crowds every week... young and old(er) clientele... and folks enjoying themselves. The bar makes a few dollars, and they still manage to pay me. To me, it's the best of all possible karaoke worlds.

The rest of the (karaoke) world may be passing me by, but I don't mind.

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Earl
(BS, PHD & Certified CurmuDJeon)

[font=Times New Roman]"Growing Old may be mandatory... but growing UP is still optional."[/font]

I recently was looking at all the karaoke scene members and notice how many no longer post on here anymore..kinda depressing..being on here sharing and ect ..used to be a hot thing...maybe everyone is just to busy and or just dont care anymore..I mean heck Lonmans last visit was Nov 27th 2024 on here..his new music page hasnt been updated since 9/12/2024..and that not like him at all ..he was always on here...i guess everyone needs a break.....hope he is ok

Nobody likes change, and yet it's inevitable.... I miss the books, too, but it makes sense that KJ's don't want to have to keep paying to print them out every time they get mangled or they have to be updated. Most of the time, if I go to a new karaoke place, they say, "I can play almost anything, just let me know what you want." Many just use the karaoke songs from YouTube. I used to love looking through the books to get ideas what to sing.

As for going out to karaoke, I still do, but not regularly. From 2016 until this year, I was living in a small town with almost no karaoke. The only time I did karaoke was if we were traveling (which we did a few times a year). Now I live in a more populated area, and there are two places nearby that have it, but they only have it on weekdays, and my husband has to get up early for work, so he won't go... We sometimes go on Saturdays to some place further (we have to take a train or Uber). I live near NYC now, and I know several people in the area from online karaoke, but most don't show up, for one reason or another. People get old, they stop singing, they have disabilities, etc. It sucks!

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~Suzanne Lanoue~

Several of My "Old School" KJs still print the books.
Disc load most if not all songs.
Not ready for the changes it seems.
However, still working and having fun.

Funny you should mention the books... At last evening's show, a fellow karaoke host asked me why I still lay out books (2 Artist, 2 Title), and I pointed out that sometimes people just like to scan the books to find 'reminders', when they can't think of what to sing. This is particularly true with our more senior singers. But, I also pointed out that my books are now eight years old, and I have no intention of printing them again.

What I do now, is ask people if they want me to send them up-dated lists of ALL my karaoke songs via e-mail from time to time, and most want me to do so. I send out both an Excel and a .PDF, usually about every 2 to 3 months.

By the way, I still put out request slips, but I tell people they're not mandatory. Most choose to fill them out, and that makes for less "dead air", but some don't use them, and I'm OK with that.

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Earl
(BS, PHD & Certified CurmuDJeon)

[font=Times New Roman]"Growing Old may be mandatory... but growing UP is still optional."[/font]

I use the What Can I Sing app when doing venues, it takes a bit to convert people to using phone but makes it much easier to handle rotation and not waste paper printing request slips, it even has a random draw if u need it, easy for me!

I'm not quite "more senior" yet, but I absolutely love scanning through books for those reminders like you mentioned. I sometimes will google random lists of different genres or artists to do the same kind of reminding for myself.

A karaoke band around here has a list of songs they distribute to each table at a venue. Obviously, a band is not going to be able to perform as many songs as a KJ has available, but I wonder if a cheat sheet type of thing would be beneficial to folks who need that little reminder--not a complete book, but some suggestions to nudge things along.

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Co-host of The Greatest Song Ever Sung (Poorly), a karaoke-themed podcast