I used to work in a karaoke bar. I know that’s not a sentence that most people get to say. It’s not really a sentence that many people WANT to say either, but I think of it as unique. I can say for certain that working in a karaoke bar was a special job that was filled with interesting experiences. Some of these experiences were bad, others were horrible, but all of them were memorable. To this day I’m glad that I worked at this karaoke bar as it got me through college and it’s where I met my first girlfriend. I also came to hate many songs as they were ruined by people with not signing ability, but we’ll get back to that later.
The karaoke bar I worked at was more of a restaurant than a bar. They served a full menu and the music and singing didn’t start until 9pm in the evening. There was a dance floor in the middle of the restaurant, and the main stage was right in front of it. It was a pretty elaborate setup as the elevated stage was highlighted by spotlights, and the singers were accentuated with lights and lasers. They would even throw on the smoke machine for special occasions, especially during Christmas which was always a bit odd. The karaoke machine that powered the whole show was state of the art, and there were big screen TVs that showed the lyrics to everyone in the audience. As soon as people entered the restaurant they were given food menus along with a song book from which they selected which songs they wanted to sing. Each song had a corresponding number which the customers wrote down on a piece of paper which was then handed over to the waiters, who would then give them to the karaoke DJ. Needless to say if you were rude then there was a good chance your request sheet would get lost on its way up to the DJ.
I learned quite a few things from working in this karaoke bar. For one, there are people who take karaoke very seriously. They clearly practice at home on personal karaoke system and they jump at the chance to sing in front of an audience. And for the most part they have the talent to back up their enthusiasm as they have some undeniable singing ability. But for one reason or another it’s clear they will never be “stars” so to speak, although you can often tell that’s what they desperately want. So you can tell that coming to the local karaoke bar is very important to them since it’s the closest they’ll probably come to being a celebrity. The great thing is that most of these people are realistic so they aren’t bitter, angry, or delusional. They have jobs and an outside life, and consider karaoke as a hobby that they truly love. They don’t get caught up in an impossible dream and just appreciate the chance to sing for other people. I guess there are some people who have unrealistic expectation like the failed contestants you see on American Idol, but for the most part they are somewhere else – not hanging out at a karaoke bar.
Now onto the bad singers, which you are probably most interested in. Yes, there were bad signers, lots of bad singers. Some of my favourite songs like Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl” have been butchered to death by karaoke singers. In the end you learn to take it stride because if you do anything otherwise you could literally go insane. And the weird thing about karaoke is that only a few songs ever get sung regularly. So even if a song book has over hundred choices in it, maybe only five of those songs get the most of the attention. So that means you hear the same songs over and over again, by artists who are long since dead. Occasionally you hear a more up to date song but that’s usually when a drunken college student gets up, and they proceed to do a worse job than the sober singers. After a while you learn to tune it all out and you truly appreciate it when someone picks a new song and does a great job at it.
So if there’s anything you learn form this post about going to a karaoke bar, let it be that you should try to choose a song that is unique. And really be careful about your song choice because what might be unique to you really isn’t all that different. So pick a good song that you don’t think many people sing. Now make a second choice. There, that second choice is probably more likely to be something that hasn’t been sung to death. So give it your best shot and at least you can be assured that the staff at that karaoke bar are all glad you’re trying something different. You can also read on for some embarrassing karaoke stories.
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