Karaoke...I want to know more...

Factual Questions
21

Ok as being a karaoke junkie and having performed it on MTV I feel I can answer this question

It’s always covers of the songs. Depending on the company that released it the quality can be quite good to awful. I find that Sound Choice makes some of the finest quality recordings. The discs have either all Music Only tracks or Half Music only then the tracks repear with one channel of backing vocals. The idea is someone who feels uncomfortable singing alone can have backup on the song. Because the backup is on one channel the Karaoke Jock or KJ can raise or lower the volue of the channel witl vocals

It depends on where you go. Many KJ’s pride themselves in having a large collection and buy new cd’s as soon as they come out. Others have smaller collections and somespecialize in a genere such as Country.

Yes it is ok to suck at it. Most of the people there expect the singers to suck, and since karaoke is mostly held in bars, most people have been drinking and you will sound better to them.

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You are welcome
Large Lover-Say What Karaoke Seaside Heights NJ Edition

22

“Is it okay if you suck, but you KNOW you suck and have a sense of humor about it?”

I feel qualified to answer, because I’m a LOUSY singer, I KNOW it, and have a sense of humor about it. So, the answer is… it depends on the bar and the crowd.

I’ve only sung karaoke three times in my life. The first time, a friend convinced me to join him in a rendition of the Georgia Satellites’ “Keep Your Hands to Yourself.” Now, truth to tell, I didn’t even have to SING that one- I just had to talk my way through it with a comically exaggerated SOuthern twang. The audience was mostly slightly intoxicated college kids, and everybody got a laugh out of it (which is all we really hoped for). On THAT night at THAT club, it was definitely okay to be terrible

A few weeks later, at a different club, the same friend convinced me to join him in “Get Back” by the Beatles. There was a looong wait for our turn, because THIS club drew a large crowd of regulars… ALL of whom were very good singers, ALL of whom were VERY serious, and ALL of whom sang Vegas standards, which they had obviously practiced repeatedly.

Well, after 45 minutes of listening to Sinatra/Whitney Houston wannabes singing “That’s Life” and “The Greatest Love of All,” my friend and I got up there and started doing “Get Back.”

Now, I KNEW my voice sucked, but I wrongly thought “Get Back” was one of those rocking numbers that didn’t require much real singing. I have since learned that nearly ALL Beatle songs are deceptively simple, especially McCartney’s. Both of our voices started cracking at unexectedly high and low notes, and we sounded wretchedly bad. But the WORST part was, NOBODY even laughed at as. THAT would have been fine. Indeed, a few laughs at our ineptness would have been a relief. Instead, we had dozens of people staring daggers at us, as if to say, "You a-holes… you’re defiling our stage. Now, get off the stage so I can do ‘Wind Beneath My Wings.’ "

So, the best advice I can give is, KNOW the bar where you’d do karaoke, and get a feel for the crowd, before you attempt to sing. And be sure you have a lot of YOUR friends in the audience.