Karaoke was very popular in America in the 2000s, but it has recently declined in popularity. Many people usually know what Karaoke is, but if you don’t, then here’s an explanation. Karaoke allows you to sing to songs. The words (lyrics) of the songs roll across the screen, or they just appear and a color flows over them as you’re supposed to read them and as they are supposed to be sung. In America, karaoke bars aren’t that common, but they do exist. Usually in America there are normal bars that feature karaoke. Karaoke is usually in bars in America because nervous people will lose their inhibitions with a few drinks. These people will sing more freely (even if it’s off pitch or sounds bad) and the bar will make more money.
Also available in America are portable Karaoke machines. Portable karaoke machines are rectangle devices with a TV screen in front and a microphone attached that you sing into. Once the microphone picks up sound, it sends signals to the karaoke machine to make it seem louder. I had one as a kid, and I sung all the High School Musical songs at full volume. I loved to pretend I was on stage. I even forced my neighbor to sing with me. We’d always sing duets with him being Troy and me singing as Gabriella. My parents humored us, although I’m sure we sounded terrible.
In Japan, Karaoke is very common. Karaoke bars in Japan are very different than ones in America. For example, they cater much more to high schoolers and college students, although adults are found in karaoke bars very often as well.
The front of a big or popular karaoke bar usually has Karaoke written in katakana (カラオケ) in neon lights at the front. When you want to do some karaoke, you go into the karaoke bar. The person waiting there will help you. Tell them how many people you have with you, and how long you want to be there. You pay by the hour in some places, and in other places you pay one set fee for unlimited time. By the hour, it’s usually 500-700 yen (5 to 7 dollars) for a cheap karaoke place. The standard is usually around 1,000 yen (or 10 dollars). The price for one unlimited karaoke place I saw was 3,500 yen (or 35 dollars) per person.
Karaoke bars in Japan don’t center around alcohol. Instead, karaoke bars are set in private rooms. The private rooms are usually dark with comfortable couches all around a big TV. There is a small square touch-screen device that lets you choose songs and put them in order. There are also usually two microphones for duets or many friends to share at once. Lots of food and many drinks are available from menus (if you want them). To order, all you do is type in your order and send it in, and it will be brought to you.
Since karaoke is such an important part of Japanese culture, we did karaoke on our Japan trip. We each paid the fee, and were led to a dimly lit room with super comfortable chairs and a large flatscreen TV in front of us. There was a large table in front of us as well, and it resembled a huge booth from a restaurant in America, because the seats wrapped around the walls. We sang Bohemian Rhapsody and other songs we all knew, as well as songs only a few of us knew. It was really fun after a long day of walking around Japan. We didn’t buy any food there, but the food on the menu looked delicious. The touch screen device was fun to use as well, although for some reason it was difficult to stop certain songs once they played. For example, our teacher wanted to hear a teenage pop song, and someone chose Nicki Minaj’s Anaconda. None of us remembered many of the lyrics and thought they were slightly risque, but not too bad. We were wrong; they were incredibly explicit and our teacher actually blushed from hearing them. Try as we might, we couldn’t get the song to stop until it was almost done. So, that was fun.
Here’s a picture of people in a karaoke room. It’s not our Japan trip group, but it seems like there are foreign exchange students there, or at least people who moved to Japan from another country.
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