Song Sung Karaoke

How did karaoke evolve?

The word karaoke as found in Wikipedia is shown as

(Japanese: カラオケ, from 空 kara, "empty" or "void", and オーケストラ ōkesutora, "orchestra") a form of entertainment in which an amateur singer or singers sing along with recorded music on microphone. The music is typically of a well-known song in which the voice of the original singer is absent or reduced in volume. Lyrics are usually also displayed, sometimes including color changes synchronized with the music, on music video to guide the sing-along.

Karaoke has been a popular form of entertainment beginning first in Japan, then the rest of East Asia, since at least the 1980s, and has since spread to other parts of the world. Karaoke engenders quite a bit of culture specific to its enthusiasts, and this culture, unsurprisingly, varies from country to country. Much of the information in this entry is currently specific to karaoke's area of origin in the Far East.

In my opinion, karaoke has flourished well before the 1980s, perhaps in the late 1960s or early 1970s. Having been from a SE Asian region, the Philippines, the trend of a 'minus one' music had already been in existence since then. This activity was inspired by the traditional "serenade" practices of the Spaniards adopted by the romantic suitors of the past era in the country. This music had been in the form of taped music, usually saved in two ways, one with vocal and the other without. Lyrics were printed on separate piece of paper sold with the tape. The 'without' vocal taped music would have been the pre-existence of the word 'karaoke' that I would say was associated with some type of music hardware as in a visual TV screen where the actual song lyrics appeared. This known existence of such hardware (screen with visual lyrics) and music format (stored on tape or in another format but in another hardware) would have been the origin of the word 'karaoke'. I can conclude then that 'karaoke' would, as a whole, imply a specific form or type of music and the type of hardware in use associated with the live rendition of the vocal sound.

Having said that, 'karaoke' could be seen as a variation of a past-time activity of a group of people (if not, but seldom, by an individual only) where the vocal rendition would normally be intended for enjoyment or entertainment of those around.

posted by Becky @ 6:51 PM