I have never had the karaoke experience. I would like to know the following:
Is it the original music with the vocal stripped out, or something along the lines of bad MIDI?
Is the selection really wide, or is it confined to “my Girl” and “Precious and Few”?
Is it okay to suck, as long as you know you suck and you have a sense of humor about it?
Thank you.
Ahh … this gives me the opportunity to tell the story of my brilliant rendition of Sir Mix-A-Lot’s “Baby Got Back” at a company Christmas party a few years ago when I was working in Nebraska.
Let me preface this by noting that I am an unfunky white boy with no chance of pulling such a song off with any amount of style.
So, there I was, feeling terribly mischievous at the party. When the book which contained all of the song choices came around, I immediately looked for the most inappropriate one there. I was thinking Ramones, perhaps, but I didn’t find them, and I thought the Sir Mix-A-Lot tune would work better, anyway.
Eventually, my name was called, and I got up to deliver my rap. "I like big butts and I cannot lie / You other brothers can’t deny … " and so on. I stood stock still and concentrated on the lyric screen so as not to lose my nerve.
The best part of my performance I did not realize I had done until I was told by a friend the next day. There is an extended section of the song where there’s no rap. Well, as an unskilled performer, I had no idea what to do. So, I lowered my hand which had the microphone in it because I wasn’t rapping. As it turned out, I lowered my hand to the point where the bottom tip of the microphone was stationed right next to my crotch. Furthermore, the microphone had a really huge, fuzzy top, likely enhancing the ability of everyone to see that I was (unintentionally) pretending to whack off on stage.
My friends called me “M.C. Whitebread” the next day in honor – or dishonor – of what I had done.
So, yes, there are lots of choices – you simply have to put in the effort to wade through the thousands of wretched country songs to pluck out a gem.
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I daresay that those people who get pissy about being overly professional and tuneful are viewed as unbelievable killjoys.
You guys may laugh at this topic, but I live in the Orient, the birthplace and domain of Karaoke, and it often makes me want to run away screaming. Although Karaoke is harmless (if rather insidious and annoying) in principle, the people and performances involved in this part of the world can be downright scary.
A Korean businessman described to me Karaoke as a form of masturbation. I said, heck, do you masturbate regularly in front of your business partners? He claimed that it helped to break the ice and form strong bonds. The booze they consume at all times they are away from the office helps form bonds too. They don’t mess around when it comes to business in Korea. I’ve been given the same opinion by Japanese people.
I suspect the Chinese have a slightly different attitude to Karaoke. They are not quite as excitable as the Koreans or the Japanese, so their performances are usually a little more restrained.
Karaoke is indeed like masturbation: it allows to release tension by communicating in an extraordinary manner to a bunch of people, often strangers. Since singing is a very emotional activity, Karaoke serves as a balm for many people who do not express themselves as often as they would like during the course of a normal day or week. Some people have opined that singing in front of an audience (any audience) improves self-confidence, but Karaoke seems to have nothing to do with self-confidence. Even the most devoid of self-confidence will step up eagerly and start singing.
The problem is that virtually everyone here is guilty of the following three crimes, which to my tortured ears deserve nothing less than capital punishment:
the sound volume is usually too high. On a cruise ship, I counted no fewer than 35 Bose industrial-duty loudspeakers in the small fore Karaoke bar (it was really small). As soon as those guys started taking their turns crooning, the noise was louder than any concert I have heard–and Canto-pop is not a particularly loud genre of music (I’d hate to hear them do Zeppelin).
Almost always, the singer is abysmally bad. So in response to the OP’s question, yes, it is apparently perfectly fine to suck utterly and completely. And a sense of humour about it is not required, believe me.
it is a necessity that the song be cheesy, unpleasant, and as undefined as possible. I have yet to hear any pieces from Tosca performed karaoke-style, but I’m sure they would be far more interesting than that flat generic pop.
I realize I am being quite hard on the phenomenon of Karaoke, but then again this is my post. Karaoke is one of those things you can’t get outrun. Wherever you are, sonner or later it catches up with you and forces you to suffer. Me, I sing in the shower and whistle as I walk, but I draw the line at pinning people down in their places over the loudpseakers and proving that the majority of the population simply cannot sing.
Abe, I think your problem is that you haven’t been sufficiently plastered to enjoy your karaoke experiences. I think the thing is, after you’ve drunk yourself silly, you couldn’t care less how well the people in your party can sing; you just laugh and have fun. Isn’t that so, M.C. Whitebread?
So, uh, anyway, that’s my answer to question #3.
Mikan, you’re probably right, although I suspect that massive Karaoke headaches would ensue if I stuck around plastered at a Karaoke.
It certainly can be fun watching people make asses of themselves in the more harmless karaoke occasions. But that’s Karaoke Lite…
Stoidela, in answer to your other questions:
no, we’re talking about state of the art Karaoke equipment and music. If you want good quality, it’s out there waiting for you somewhere.
as far as I know (I have not looked deeply into this) the music selection of Karaoke databases is good. I wish the same could be said of the Karaoke singers.
Especially painful was seeing a drunk Japanese man warbling all his emotion into “woman in red”, which he of course dedicated to his girlfriend in the audience, who was dressed in enough red to induce a black eye. The sweat dripping down his face. The half-closed eyes. The tilted head. The fumbling for the mike. The slurring. The cacophony.
It’s a nightmare, I’m telling you. Flee for your life while you are still unfettered by this evil phenomenon.
The music can vary; some of it is cheesy MIDI-type, and some is a pretty good facsimile of the original. There are a number of companies that make karaoke discs and some are better than others.
I can’t speak for the rest of the US, but in the Northern Virginia area there is rather a lively karaoke scene. There is one fellow in particular whose shows I go to almost exclusively. Contrary to the experience of others in this thread, this guy’s show is excellent; he has a huge selection of songs (I believe ~8000 songs at last count), professional sound system, and runs the show very well. A lot of people who come to his shows are very good singers, though certainly not all.
I have been to a number of shows that weren’t nearly as good, so I do realize that this guy is more the exception rather than the rule, but I wanted to reassure you that not all karaoke is hell.
My best friend and I are both good singers, but we love it when people who maybe aren’t so good get up there and just have a good time–that is the point, after all. The great thing about karaoke is that it’s very democratic; you don’t have to have an ounce of talent to do it!
Neither; it’s generally just cover bands without singers. This is the cheapest possible method; it would be really problematic and expensive to use the original tracks, but as Cecil himself has pointed out, you don’t need permission to do covers (but you have to pay royalties anyway.)
Depends on the karaoke bar. Karaoke music is sold on discs, either CD or laser discs with videos, so you might get some places that cheaped out and only have 150 songs, and some might have a thousand or more. It does tend to strongly favour everything from 1962 to 1989, with very few recent tunes. Most karaoke CDs have been in use for ten years or so. I think they’re expensive.
So you can pretty much forget about doing your best “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” but brush up on “House of the Rising Sun.”
Since 98% of all karaoke singers suck, I guess it must be okay. Think before you pick a song; pick one in your vocal range. I used to bring the house down with “Crocodile Rock.”
What a coincidence. I spent three hours karaoke-ing today.
My experiences are different from the other posters’ in that they seem to be karaoke-ing in large rooms with strangers.
Most of the karaoke places I’ve been to consist of a bunch of small to large private rooms. The size of the room you get depends on how many are in your party. Each room has its own complete karaoke system, including a TV to watch the bad karaoke videos (complete with inaccurate, malapropistic lyrics) on. Some even have glitter balls on the ceiling… in case you do any disco, I guess.
Now that I think about it, I’ve only been to one place that had public karaoke. As you can probably guess, it was where all the drunk wannabe-Elvises hung out. The place was in the heart of Waikiki, though, so one can assume it was more geared to soon-to-be un-sober tourists anyway. Anyway, the place also had private rooms, and we went for those. That, BTW, was the time I did karaoke in Cantonese. Quite a trip.
This is how it usually goes. You make your reservations (it can get busy on weekend nights), and show up at the appointed hour. When you check in, they’ll give you a couple microphones and some binders that list all the songs available. The variety varies-- some places have great stuff, the current hits as well as the golden oldies-- while some places seem to have only Elton John, Elvis, the Bee Gees, and Michael Jackson.
Most people reserve rooms for a couple hours; like I said, we went for three hours today. That’s fairly typical of my trips. The time can go by very quickly. If you figure that most songs are about four to six minutes long, you can calculate roughly how much music you can go through in a few hours.
When you’re done, you pay. Most places have off-peak hour and group discounts. Today’s tab came out to $45. We went on a Sunday at noon; if you were to go on a Saturday night, you could pay lot more. If you ordered drinks and food (some places have decent service), that’s added to your tab, plus gratuity.
Fortunately, most karaoke places have fairly relaxed outside-food policies. We’ve brought in everything from McDonald’s to chili to pizza to KFC. I guess they just don’t care, as long as you clean up after yourself.
You do NOT have to be drunk in order to have a good time. My friends have done this, and sang Loveshack ten times (in probably ten different ways) without noticing. However, you can turn the trip into an 70s or 80s music revival-type festival, and have a blast that way. The more people, the better, and the crazier they can get, the better.
Admittedly, I’ve only heard good karaoke singers once. Not surprisingly, they were professional musician relatives of someone we knew. Most of the people we’ve heard think they can do Celine Dion and Tom Jones, when they can’t. Heck, we suck too, when you get down to it. But the point of the thing is to have fun, right?
Sorry if this is a little disjointed. It’s 3am now, and I’ve got to be up in about 4 hours…
I live in Japan so it’s pretty much impossible to avoid Karaoke. Like AudreyK said, it’s usually private rooms that seat half a dozen or so, maybe more. The way I see it, it’s just a way to “socialize” without doing any thinking or talking - just drink and make a big noise.
The music is not the original recording with the voice stripped out. It’s usually a pretty good MIDI reproduction of the original - there are musicians who make a living imitating the latest hits on the keyboard. (Or so I heard somewhere) Usually I can’t tell the difference from the original.
The music selection depends on where you go. In Japanese Karaoke boxes you get a choice of hundreds, if not more, all with video. Besides the top 40 stuff, music, anime and TV theme songs are always fun to do.
As for singing expertise, I’d say it’s better to be funny and bad, than serious and good. Depends on who you’re with though.
There seems to be a lot of good answers to your questions here, so I won’t reiterate. But I will add that you should know your vocal range, and choose songs that lie in it. In other words, it doesn’t matter how much you like John Lennon, you shouldn’t be covering him if you have a deep voice like Elvis. Or vice-versa.
You should be able to find songs that you like and that you can do–I have yet to encounter a karaoke that had a small selection; most were at least 1000+ songs. Somewhere in there is one that you can have fun with.
Don’t worry about “sucking.” Most of the time, folks are pretty encouraging no matter how poor a singer one is. And while there will be some standout singers (there always are), the talent that most participants display will never get them any kind of fame or fortune, other than among their friends.
If you’re worried about your voice and staying on key, you can always choose an old rocker and just shout it out: “Johnny B. Goode,” “Great Balls of Fire,” and “Born to be Wild” are good for this approach.
Most importantly though, have fun. It’s not an audition, it’s not a recording session, and it shouldn’t be a talent contest.
My daughter is a professional singer, has a lovely voice, and a wide range. When she sings “Get here by Oleta Adams” or some other slow ballad, it is really nice.
Me, on the other hand, I have a voice that prompted my kids
to say “please mommy, don’t sing me a lullaby, PLEASE”
I stick to something raucous or over the top. I once did a rendition of “Feelings” that literally brought the audience to tears. Why, in fact, when I went back to my seat, the crowd broke out in cheers, they stopped when I got back up though…Curious.
I find the selection of karaoke songs to be very large. A quick example: Pocket Songs - 12,000 songs for your singing pleasure. I’ve shopped there a number of times.
Yes, I’m a closet Karaoke freak.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by RickJay *
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I have to disagree there… Several of the companies that manufacture Karaoke CDs have VERY current selections, often available before the songs even get any airplay on the radio. (check out the selections at http://www.cbkaraoke.com and http://www.soundchoice.com)
Most Karaoke DJ companies in my area (Dallas/Fort Worth) regularly buy new music to keep current and to try to stay ahead of the competition. (I also noticed this trend on a recent visit to Charlotte, NC)
okay… so I never reply… and I usually dont even hang around here since my Mom is Mojo57(see a few posts above) and really dont want to stumble upon something that I dont want to know. having said that…
Karaoke can be really fun, or it can be reaaaalllly bad. You need to ask around and find the best places to go. Find out the name of the audio store around you that sells all of the CD’s and ask them where to go. Me, being a singer as Mom so graciously pointed out have found some pretty good places. I find that Gay bars that have karaoke are usually the best. Also, look for the bars that have contests often. Those are usually pretty good too. This is all if you merely want to listen. If you are not a singer, my suggestion is to go to the big karaoke bars, find out what company does the karaoke and then ask them if they do any small bars. Go to those bars. Usually the country hick bars where everyone is too drunk to care how bad/good you sound.
There are soooo many songs available. You can do the usual of “Pretty Woman” or you can do the obscure of “Dont touch me there” by the Tubes. I know that I have done Lauryn Hill a coupla times so the new songs are out there. Again, this all depends on the company who is doing the karaoke. Each disc is about $30 for usually around 17 songs so you have to have a bunch of money to start up a karaoke business and keep it going so the have to do lots of shows.
Just get up there… if you’re nervous, take a friend up there. Just have fun with it.
Karaoke machine aren’t restricted to CDs anymore. At least, not in Japan. A number of Karaoke centers have DSL lines (or some other suitable pipe) connected to a central provider (usually Sega, Yamaha, Shidax or DAM) that has a library of several thousand songs stored in its servers. You enter the number of your song with the remote, wait about 10 seconds, then start croonin’.
If your voice sucks too much even for fast rock n’ roll, most machines I’ve seen offer “Anarchy in the UK.”
Personally, I love karaoke, but I don’t want to have to live upstairs from it again.
–sublight.
karaoke, I love it. Its not about how good you sing the song, its about your attitude on the stage. I’ve seen people go up and sing brilliantly, but lose the attention of the audience because they had no presence. Also, alot depends on the song you sing. it has to be in the right range for you, and should be relatively easy for the Audience to recognize.
Most of the time, I do bad elvis songs, but get a buzz going with my friends, and you can really have somne fun up there.
2 months ago, I was at a Company Barbeque. They were singrealyy badly all night, the songs you hate to hear at Karaoke. so I got up and sang the saddest song i could find on the list. “You do something to me” by Paul Weller. I pretended to get really upset during the song, and nearly broke down at the end. I finished the song, and the people who were listening stood there silently. I then gave a big “Thank you! and Good Night” and walked off.
as a result, everyone in work is scared to have coffee with me, except for the people who saw the joke. 
Are you talking about Lee (forget his last name), who used to (and maybe still does) provide karaoke at Patriot’s in Fairfax, VA?
There’s a group of singers that follow him to about 4 places he has weekly gigs at. Some of them are quite good. One of my friends did killer renditions of Patsy Kline songs. The best man at my wedding used to sing quite a bit at Lee’s gigs, and sang our first dance song at our wedding reception.
He has a huge selection of songs, most of them contemporary. Some sound like elevator music versions of songs without lyrics, others like the original also sans lyrics. And with a little time, he can mask out the vocal track of a user-supplied CD in case they want to sing a song that he doesn’t have.
Another friend used to sing “You Oughta Know” by Alanis Morissette before Lee had its made-for-karaoke version and before the album got popular. We all were shocked when we figured out the lyrics she was singing. :D:D
AWB–YES! I’ve been going to Lee’s shows for 3-4 years now. I bet I know at least some of your friends. Small world, eh?
AWB–check your email.