Just filled out your “Best of Music” survey. As a musician (i.e. someone who plays a real instrument and sings with other real people playing real instruments), I was appalled to see a category for Best Karaoke Host. That is akin to having a Winter Olympic event on a ski hill for tobogganing. Sure, toboggining can be fun, but it’s not a real sport. Apparently, some people find off-key singers and terrible songs at Karaoke venues amusing as well. But Karaoke is NOT music and has no business being in this poll. And everyone knows Karaoke hosts are the devil incarnate, sent to further dumb down popular culture (if that’s even possible; it can’t get much dumber).
Kim
This article appears in Jan 22-28, 2009.
You hate fun.
Well sometimes these’shows’ are good for a laugh, other times the participant has actually driven out onto the street until they’ve finished. I have always thought of & have called Karaoke shows “Howl & Shriek” shows. Mostly because that’s what you’re usually going to hear. But in Korea they do it right. You & your friends get a private room, so someone like me who likes to sit at the Bar, doesn’t have to worry about my drink glass shattering or being driven out onto the street, as the participants howl into the mike.
I do have a question for those…um hosts of Karaoke shows, who was it that told all of you that ‘Louder’ is somehow synonymous with’better’ ???
Dear OP;
Maybe it’s in the wrong category – I’ll give you that one, however, considering that people are singing SONGS accompanied by instruments, karaoke *is* music, dumbass. Maybe that’s why you can’t get a gig. You just don’t understand what music is.
However, there are a few things wrong with your post.
1) Assuming that karaoke hosts are not musicians (I can name 4 extremely popular hosts who are either IN bands right now, or have been in successful bands, not some crappy duo playing Gus’ Pub for their cut of $2 at the door).
2) Assuming that karaoke hosts have ANYTHING to do with the caliber of karaoke “singers” in the audience
3) Assuming that only non-musicians and shitty singers go to al karaoke shows (I know some pro singers who come out so they can sing for the love of it without having to entertain everyone)
4) Assuming that karaoke is the demise of “live music” and “bands” in Halifax. The demise of live music and bands in Halifax is the lack of variety, the fact that the same 4 bands who were doing the club circuit when I left town in 1998 are still playing the club circuit, and anything new out there consists of crappy 3-chord-strumming, navel-gazing singer-songwriters who don’t entertain anyone but themselves.
And since I personally hosted karaoke for several years in a past life (Thank GOD I don’t anymore), I can tell you that if you want to make a living as an entertainer, sometimes you have to take the shit jobs, and karaoke host is right up there next to cab driver and manure shoveler on the “jobs NOBODY wants to do but has to to make their rent”.
So stop your freaking whining and learn a new chord or two. Stick to the bars that have LIVE music instead of bitching about places other people might like to go instead.
BTW – the places that have karaoke are NOT going to pay for a band on a weeknight. It’s just not profitable for either of you. Unless you want the $150 a night to split between you and your cronies while people throw chicken bones at you from the floor.
I can’t speak for all Karaoke hosts but can guarantee you Jackie Smith rocked harder by 1984 than you will for the rest of your life.
God Bless you Raoul. LOL
Well, OP, I’m sure all the athletes who have competitions/clubs and compete in skeleton are happy to know that you’ve defined their sport as not real.
Hah. Nothing beats a night of wings, drinkin’, and belting out Journey at the top of your lungs. I just think the OP has no sense of humour.
Tobogganing is a sport is it not?
Switzerland–Canadian bobsled veteran Pierre Lueders and fellow Edmonton native David Bissett have earned their medals.
As far as Karaoke not being music, the careers of Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus, tragic, but it was and still is entertainment.
D J’s get groupies!
I would rather see a bunch of people from all walks of life (sort of) getting loaded enough (or not) to get the courage to try St. Elmo’s Fire, then a crappy, under rehearsed, wannabe rock star band that gets pissed when they feel under appreciated.
You of all people should realize that some people might want to entertain themselves or others and should be free to.
You’ll make it as a musician there kiddo, hang in there.
aren’t pop and rap basically karaoke with voice filters that can make Paris Hilton sound almost audible?
I guess they’re -technically- music, but not what I would like to listen to or encourage in any way.
You’re worried about the dumbing down of popular culture, yet you can’t even see your way to spelling “Japan?” If there is a problem you’re part of it.
You know, Mole Rat, if I wasn’t 99% certain you’re a girl, I’d propose to you. LMAO
Didn’t even want to get into the spelling – there was so much other fodder.
I bet the OP plays a kazoo with that horrible band that has the chick playing off-key fluorescent recorder in it.
Hey, don’t let me possibly being a girl get in the way of anything 😉
Tobogganing is to bob-sledding as karaoke is to music. Give me a break people!
The OP is bang on here. Don’t believe me? Go ahead and bring your best karaoke skills to a live jam and perform without the machine. It’s apples and oranges.. no it’s more like apples versus monkeys… not even in the same biological classification yet they both live on the earth, therefore… fuck, people are stupid! I can play Rockstar on PS3 therefore I am. LOL
zZz is also bang on… that techno rap crap is karaoke, or maybe it’s more like spoken word but it’s NOT the result of singer/songwriter work; Madonna, of course, being the grand exception to all of that. If you’re looking for the demise of music…
Gidget is so far away on this it’s laughable… singers do karaoke so they don’t have to entertain LOL *picking myself off the floor here*. Just what do you think karaoke singers are doing, huh? They’re PRETENDING to be entertainers just like their host! Don’t give tham an award, that will encourage them to think themselves as real musicians.
A serious sense of humor is required to involve a karaoke anything with legitimate awards presentations for real working musicians. If the karaoke host is also a musician (then they perform elsewhere, not karaoke) who deserves an award then, hey, whatever, but singing karaoke is NOT akin to being a musician.
I’m sure all the kids on Sesamee Street thought they were “dancers” too. Good grief.
Ok for the OP, just because you’re in a band doesn’t mean you have talent. First of all the professional karaoke hosts (Laurie The Guy, Jackie Smith, Krazy Kraig, to mention a few) have invested tens of thousands of dollars to provide excellent sound systems and music, so ordinary people can have fun. Just like bands there are a few great singers, a lot of good, some mediocre, and some just plain awful. But it is audience participation.
And if karaoke is so awful, then why do band people go to karaoke. Why then did Trooper go to karaoke and I had the pleasure to sing “We’re Here For A Good Time” with Ra Maguire (lead singer who sang with many that night). Why does Seth MacFarlane regularily go and I’ve heard many top rated acts go to karaoke. Why? The fun factor.
So get off your high horse, buy a beer and have some fun. But then you’re probably afraid of the competetion.
Hey Bro Tim, I’d love to see “band people” or any popular/real musicians do the karaoke thing but it just doesn’t happen and for good reason having fuck all to do with “fun” or, LOL, “competition”… it CHEAPENS THE PRODUCT!
SINGING karaoke for some, not all I give you, is just plain for the fun of it. Regular, everyday people who don’t get the chance to sing anywhere but their car, enjoy to get up and sing, to see how exhilarating it is. The award is not for the singers (if it was no one would get it), but for the hosts that put up with the shit, and make the experience of karaoke better than it would be without a host. It is a shit job, and I don’t know very many, if any, that think they are God’s gift to music. It’s a job that pays, some are musicians, professional singers, and some are not. If you don’t like karaoke… DON’T GO! But there are people who enjoy it, and who is it to tell them that they aren’t good enough to enjoy the entertainment they choose to. I’d love to see the people who cut up the hosts (because they don’t like karaoke) try to do a week of karaoke gigs, and see if it changes their impression. Trust me… you need to have thick skin, be able to put up with drunk asses, and hope that there will be at least one or two good singers, or yes, maybe even a “professional” that’s in town. You’ll see the occasional “professional” at Cheers karaoke… if you ever went. Though, some might be glad you don’t if you’re such an ass towards it. Notice, I didn’t cut up cheap, low paid bands that play mostly covers? Because they all have a place in entertainment too. Whatever floats YOUR boat.