Karaoke

Teenagers in a private box singing karaoke

Hello everyone I am sure you all know what karaoke is and have probably performed once or twice using the technology. In Japan karaoke is very popular and it is common for people to go out to karaoke bars and sing songs with friends and/or colleagues from work. There are karaoke bars all over Japan and a majority of them have private rooms or “private boxes” for anywhere from two people to a large party. When you rent these rooms usually food and drink is also provided so that everyone can relax and enjoy themselves talking, eating, drinking, and singing of course.

There is a karaoke jockey who normally announces song titles along with whose turn it is to sing. In older karaoke shops it is also his job to change CDs for the customers if the songs are not digital ( a lot of work!). In Japan there is something called juhachiban which is a song that a particular person likes to sing because they very good at singing it. Now if you go to karaoke with a friend or colleague do not sing there juhachiban song because it makes it seem like you are trying to show them up and it is rude.

Also, karaoke is not always performed in groups. There is something called hitokara which basically means “one person karaoke”, where a single person sings by themselves. In addition to this there is something called Movioke, where people can play as actors from movies, reenacting their favorite scenes.

Karaoke has grown in popularity and still is as new forms are still emerging. Private in-home karaoke players are becoming more popular, and now karaoke players and songs can be downloaded directly from the internet giving people access to thousands of songs at the push of a button.