Karaoke: The Global Phenomenon

Front Cover
Reaktion Books, Jun 1, 2013 - Social Science - 207 pages

Dancing Queen. Respect. Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl). There are some songs so infectious that you can’t help but belt out the lyrics along with the singer. Karaoke—meaning “empty orchestra” in Japanese—gets rid of the singer and leaves you in the spotlight alone. It is the social manifestation of our desire to sing, in tune or out, and in three short decades, it has exploded into a worldwide craze. In this unprecedented study, Zhou Xun and Francesca Tarocco engagingly examine karaoke and all its associated kitsch, crime, and weirdness.

Usually thought of as the pastime of desperately bad singers and slurring drunks, karaoke has never enjoyed a particularly stellar image. Xun and Tarocco, however, reveal its surprisingly complex history and significant cultural impact around the world. Originating in postwar Japan, karaoke soon spread to Southeast Asia and the West. Karaoke traces how it became a wildly successful social phenomenon that constantly evolved to keep pace with changes in technology and culture. Drawing on extensive research and international travels, the authors chart the varied manifestations of karaoke, from karaoke taxis in Bangkok to nude karaoke in Toronto to the role of karaoke in prostitution. Extensive personal anecdotes reveal the dramatic range of social experiences made possible by karaoke and how the obsession with performance and song has touched politics, history, and pop culture throughout global society.

Karaoke bars are at the heart of rich escapist fantasies and the authors—in readable fashion and using vibrant full-color illustrations—document this unpredictable fantasy world and the people who inhabit it. Karaoke,therefore, will delight anyone who has had the courage to take the mike and front the “empty orchestra.”

 

Contents

Introduction
7
1 Who Invented Karaoke?
19
Japan and Korea
31
SouthEast Asia
57
China
90
Karaoke and Religion
108
North America
117
Britain
137
The Nikkeijin Story
159
Karaoke Technologies
164
Karaoke at the Frontiers
177
Select List of Karaoke Venues Worldwide
182
References
189
Select Bibliography
201
Photos and Acknowledgements
202
Index
204

Europe
146

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2013)

Zhou Xun is the ESRC Research Fellow in the history department at the School of Oriental and Asian Studies at the University of London. She is coeditor with Sander L. Gilman of Smoke, published by Reaktion Books, and coauthor of Narcotic Culture, published by the University of Chicago Press. Francesca Tarocco is a musicologist and lecturer in Buddhist studies at the University of Manchester.

Bibliographic information