Karaoke (カラオケ? from Japanese kara(空), "empty," and ōkesutora, "orchestra") (pronounced /kɑːrɑːˌoʊkɛ/; in Japanese IPA: [karaoke]; listen ) is a form of entertainment in which amateur singers sing along with recorded music using a microphone and public address system. An orchestra is an instrumental ensemble, usually fairly large with string brass woodwind sections and possibly a percussion section as well See also Entertainment (disambiguation and The Entertainer (disambiguation Entertainment is an activity designed to give people An amateur is generally considered a person attached to a particular pursuit study or science without formal training or pay Music is an Art form in which the medium is Sound organized in Time. The music is typically a well-known pop song in which the voice of the original singer is removed or reduced in volume. A song is a Musical composition. Songs contain vocal parts that are performed 'sung' and generally feature Words ( Lyrics) commonly followed Loudness is the quality of a Sound that is the primary psychological correlate of physical strength (amplitude Lyrics are usually displayed on a video screen, along with a moving symbol or changing color, to guide the singer. Lyrics (in singular form Lyric) are a set of words that accompany music either by speaking or singing In some countries, karaoke with video lyrics display capabilities is called KTV. Karaoke Box is a variant of Karaoke that is popular in East Asia. It is very commonly pronounced /kæriːoʊkiː/, leading people to also spell it "kareoke".
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History
AudioSynTrac and Numark Electronics were the first companies that combined to offer sing-along tapes and audio equipment to the rest of the world. The president of AudioSynTrac, Scott Ebright was a California music promoter and talent agent who booked singers at resorts and hotels across the U. S. Japanese electronics companies saw the AudioSynTrac products introduced at CES shows in the 1970's and immediately copied the concept, calling it "karaoke". [3] The first karaoke machine was invented by Japanese musician Daisuke Inoue[1] in Kobe, Japan, in the early 1970s. (real name is) invented the Karaoke machine in 1971 but never attempted to Patent it is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture and a prominent port city in Japan with a population of about 1 For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics. [2] After becoming popular in Japan, karaoke spread to East and Southeast Asia during the 1980s and subsequently to other parts of the world in its modern state.
In Japan, it has long been common to provide musical entertainment at a dinner or a party. Taipei ( Taiwanese Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tâi-pak-chhī Jhuyin Fuhao: ㄊㄞˊ ㄅㄟˇ ㄕˋ Hakka: Thòi-pet-sṳ has been the capital of Japanese drummer Daisuke Inoue was asked by frequent guests in the Utagoe Kissa, where he performed, to provide a recording of his performance so that they could sing along on a company-sponsored vacation. Realizing the potential for the market, Inoue made a tape recorder that played a song for a 100-yen coin.
Instead of giving his karaoke machines away, he leased them out, so that stores did not have to buy new songs on their own. Originally, it was considered a somewhat expensive fad, as it lacked the live atmosphere of a real performance and 500 yen in the 1970s was the price of two typical lunches, but it caught on as a popular entertainment. Karaoke machines were initially placed in restaurants and hotel rooms; soon, new businesses called karaoke boxes, with compartmented rooms, became popular. In 2004, Daisuke Inoue was awarded the tongue-in-cheek Ig Nobel Peace Prize for inventing karaoke, "thereby providing an entirely new way for people to learn to tolerate each other. Tongue-in-cheek is a term used to refer to humor in which a statement or an entire fictional work is not meant to be taken seriously but its lack of seriousness is subtle The Ig Nobel Prizes are a Parody of the Nobel Prizes and are given each year in early October — around the time the recipients of the genuine Nobel Prizes are "
Inoue never bothered to patent his invention, losing his chance to become one of Japan's richest men. A patent is a set of Exclusive rights granted by a State to an inventor or his assignee for a fixed period of time in exchange for a disclosure of an Roberto del Rosario, a Filipino inventor who called his sing-along system "Minus-One", now holds the patent for the device now commonly known as the "karaoke machine". Filipinos or the Filipino people are the citizens of the Philippines. Following a court battle with a Japanese company which claimed to have invented the system, del Rosario's patents were issued in 1983 and 1986, more than a decade after Inoue's original unpatented invention of the device in 1971. (real name is) invented the Karaoke machine in 1971 but never attempted to Patent it [3]
Early karaoke machines used cassette tapes, but technological advances replaced this with CDs, VCDs, laserdiscs and, currently, DVDs. A Compact Disc (also known as a CD) is an Optical disc used to store digital data, originally developed for storing digital audio The Laserdisc (LD is an obsolete Home video disc format and was the first commercial Optical disc storage medium DVD (also known as " Digital Versatile Disc " or " Digital Video Disc " - see Etymology)is In 1992, Taito introduced the X2000, which fetched music via a dial-up telephone network. The is a Japanese developer of Video game software and arcade hardware wholly-owned by RPG publisher Square Enix. Its repertoire of music and graphics was limited, but its smaller size and the advantage of continuous updates saw it gradually replace traditional machines. Karaoke machines connected via fiber-optic links to provide instant high-quality music and video are becoming increasingly popular.
Karaoke soon spread to the rest of Asia and then to the United States in the 1990s, as well as to Canada and other Western countries. Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page In-home karaoke machines soon followed but lacked success in the US and Canadian markets. When creators became aware of this problem, karaoke machines were no longer being sold strictly for the purpose of karaoke but as home theater systems to enhance television watching to "movie theater like quality". Home theater systems took off, and karaoke went from being the main purpose of the stereo system, to being a side feature.
As the available selection of music has increased for karaoke machines, more and more people within the industry saw karaoke as a very profitable form of lounge and nightclub entertainment. It is not uncommon for some bars to have karaoke performances seven nights a week, commonly with much more high-end sound equipment than the small, stand-alone machines noted above. Dance floors and lighting effects are also becoming common sights in karaoke bars. Lyrics are often displayed on multiple TV sets around the bar, including big screens.
Technology
A basic karaoke machine consists of a microphone, a means of altering the pitch of the recorded music, and an audio output. Some low-end machines attempt to provide vocal suppression so that one can feed regular songs into the machine and suppress the voice of the original singer; however, this is rarely effective. Most common machines are audio mixers with microphone input built in with CD+G, Video CD, Laser Disc, or DVD players. A CD+G (also known as CD+Graphics) is a special audio Compact disc that contains Graphics Data in addition to the audio data CD+G players use a special track called subcode to encode the lyrics and pictures displayed on the screen, while the other formats natively display both audio and video. Besides digital audio a Compact disc contains digital data called subcode or subchannel data, which is multiplexed with the digital audio
Most karaoke machines have technology that electronically changes the pitch of the music so that amateur singers can sing along to any music source by choosing a key that is appropriate for their vocal range, while maintaining the original tempo of the song. (There were some very old systems that used cassettes, and these changed the pitch by altering playback speed, but none are still on the market, and their commercial use is virtually nonexistent. )
A popular game using karaoke is to type in a random number and call up a song, of which participants take turns to try to sing as much as they can. In some machines, this game is pre-programmed and may be limited to a genre so that they cannot call up an obscure national anthem that none of the participants can sing. This game has come to be called "Kamikaze Karaoke" or "Karaoke Roulette" in some parts of the United States and Canada. Roulette is a Casino and Gambling game named after the French word meaning "small wheel"
Many low-end entertainment systems have a karaoke mode that attempts to remove the vocal track from regular audio CDs. This is done by center removal, which exploits the fact that in most music the vocals are in the center. This means that the voice, as part of the music, has equal volume on both stereo channels and no phase difference. To get the quasi-karaoke (mono) track, the left channel of the original audio is subtracted from the right channel. Monaural (often shortened to mono) sound reproduction is single-channel The Sega Saturn also has a "mute vocals" feature that is based on the same principle and is also able to adjust the pitch of the song to match the singer's vocal range.
The crudeness of this approach is reflected in the often-poor performance of voice removal. Common effects are hearing the reverberation of the voice track (due to stereo reverb being put on the vocals); also, other instruments (snare/bass drum, solo instruments) that happen to be mixed into the center get removed, degrading this approach to hardly more than a gimmick in those devices. Reverberation is the persistence of Sound in a particular space after the original sound is removed Stereophonic sound, commonly called stereo, is the reproduction of Sound, using two or more independent audio channels through a Symmetrical
MIDI applications and . kar files
Some computer programs that serve a similar purpose to the standard karaoke machine have been developed that use MIDI instrumentation instead of a recorded track to generate the accompaniment. MIDI ( Musical Instrument Digital Interface, ˈmɪdi is an industry-standard protocol that enables Electronic musical instruments Computers This makes transposition technically trivial and also shrinks the information needed to provide the accompaniment to the point where it is easy to transfer across the Internet, even over slow connections. The Internet is a global system of interconnected Computer networks The standard file format used is . KAR, an extension of the standard . MID MIDI disk format which includes embedded lyrics and can be played unaltered by MIDI player software.
Video game
A karaoke game was initially released for the NES, but its limited computing ability made for a short catalog of songs and therefore reduced replay value. The Nintendo Entertainment System (often abbreviated as NES or simply Nintendo) is an 8-bit Video game console that was released by As a result, karaoke games were considered little more than collector's items until they saw release in higher-capacity DVD formats.
Karaoke Revolution, created for the PlayStation 2 by Konami and released in North America in 2003, is a console game in which a single player sings along with on-screen guidance and receives a score based on his or her pitch, timing, and rhythm. Karaoke Revolution and its many sequels are Video games for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Nintendo GameCube, Wii, () is a leading developer and publisher of numerous popular and strong-selling toys Trading cards, Anime, Tokusatsu, Slot machines The game soon spawned several follow-ups including Karaoke Revolution Vol. 2, Karaoke Revolution Vol. 3, Karaoke Revolution Party Edition, CMT Presents Karaoke Revolution: Country and Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol. While the original Karaoke Revolution was also eventually released for the Microsoft Xbox console in late 2004, the new online-enabled version included the ability to download additional song packs through the console's exclusive Xbox Live service. The Xbox is a sixth-generation Video game console produced by Microsoft Corporation. Xbox Live (trademarked as Xbox LIVE) is an online multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft Corporation
A similar game, SingStar, published by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, is particularly popular in the European and Australasian markets. This article concerns the series as a whole For the PlayStation 3 version see SingStar (PlayStation 3. Other similar titles in the rhythm-based game genre include Bemani's Dance Dance Revolution, GuitarFreaks, Donkey Konga, DrumMania, Guitar Hero, Rock Band, and UltraStar with its forks. is Konami 's Music video game division Originally named the Games & Music Division, or simply G Dance Dance Revolution (abbreviated DDR) previously known as Dancing Stage in PAL territories until the announcement of GuitarFreaks (also GUITARFREAKS, abbreviated GF) is a Music video game series produced by Konami. is a GameCube rhythm game starring the gorilla Donkey Kong, developed by Namco and published by Nintendo. DrumMania (alternately drummania, abbreviated DM) is a Music video game series produced by Konami Digital Entertainment UltraStar is a clone of SingStar, a Music video game. Ultrastar lets one or several players score points by singing along to a song or music video and match the
Karaoke VCD
The takeoff of video CDs in East and Southeast Asia is partly due to the popularity of karaoke. Many VCD players in Southeast Asia have a built-in karaoke function. On stereo recordings, one speaker will play the music with the vocal track, and the other speaker will play the music without the vocal track. So, to sing karaoke, users play the music-only track through both speakers. In the past, there were only pop-song karaoke VCDs. Nowadays, different types of karaoke VCDs are available. Cantonese opera karaoke VCD is now a big hit among the elderly in Hong Kong. Cantonese opera is one of the major categories in Chinese opera, originating in southern China 's Cantonese culture. Hong Kong ( officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a territory located on China 's south coast on the Pearl River Delta, and borders
Karaoke on mobile phones
In 2003, several companies started offering a karaoke service on mobile phones, using a Java MIDlet that runs with a text file containing the words and a MIDI file with the music. A MIDlet is a Java program for Embedded devices, more specifically the Java ME virtual machine This is still a budding service, and it is unclear whether it will become popular; however, some mobile karaoke providers, such as Karaokini, have begun to achieve commercial success.
Karaoke on computers and the Internet
Since 2003, much software has been released for hosting karaoke shows and playing karaoke songs on a personal computer. Instead of having to carry around hundreds of CD-Gs or laserdiscs, KJs can "rip" their entire libraries onto their hard drives and play the songs and lyrics from there. Ripping is the process of copying audio or video content to a Hard disk, typically from Removable media or media streams.
Additionally, new software permits singers to sing and listen to one another over the Internet.
Karaoke in automobiles
Chinese automobile maker Geely Automobile received much press in 2003 for being the first to equip a car, their Beauty Leopard, with a karaoke machine as standard equipment. China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National Geely Automobile ( ( is a Chinese Automaker and is the first independent Automobile manufacturer in the People's Republic of China. The Geely BL is a Coupe Automobile from Chinese manufacturer Geely Automobile. Karaoke is often also found as a feature in aftermarket in-car DVD players.
Alternative playback devices
The CD+G format of a karaoke disc, which contains the lyrics on a specially encoded subcode track, has heretofore required special—and expensive—equipment to play. Commercial players have come down in price, though, and some unexpected devices (including the Sega Saturn video game console and XBMC on the Xbox 1) can decode the graphics; in fact, karaoke machines, including video and sometimes recording capability, are often popular electronics items for sale in toy stores and electronics stores. The is a 32-bit Video game console that was first released on November 22 1994 in Japan, May 11 1995 in North America XBMC Media Center (formerly named " XBox Media Center " is a free and open source Cross-platform media-player and entertainment hub
Additionally, there is software for Windows, Pocket PC, Linux, and Macintosh PCs that can decode and display karaoke song tracks, though usually these must be ripped from the CD first, and possibly compressed.
In addition to CD+G and software-based karaoke, microphone-based karaoke players enjoy popularity mainly in North America and some Asian countries such as the Philippines. Microphone-based karaoke players only need to be connected to a TV—and in some cases to a power outlet; in other cases they run on batteries. These devices often sport advanced features, such as pitch correction and special sound effects. Some companies offer karaoke content for paid download to extend the song library in microphone-based karaoke systems.
CD+G, DVD, VCD and microphone-based players are most popular for home use. Due to song selection and quality of recordings, CD+G is the most popular format for English and Spanish. It is also important to note that CD+G has limited graphical capabilities, whereas VCD and DVD usually have a moving picture or video background. VCD and DVD are the most common format for Asian singers due to music availability and largely due to the moving picture/video background.
Public places for karaoke
In Asia, a karaoke box is the most popular type of karaoke venue. Hamburg (English, German: ˈhambʊɐk local pronunciation Low German / Low Saxon: Hamborg) is the second-largest city in Germany Karaoke Box is a variant of Karaoke that is popular in East Asia. A karaoke box is a small or medium-sized room containing karaoke equipment rented by the hour or half-hour, providing for a more intimate and less public atmosphere. Karaoke venues of this type are often dedicated businesses, some with multiple floors and a variety of amenities including food service, but hotels and business facilities sometimes provide karaoke boxes as well.
A karaoke bar, restaurant, club or lounge is a bar or restaurant that provides karaoke equipment so that people can sing publicly, sometimes on a small stage. A bar (also called a Pub or Tavern) is a business that serves drinks especially Alcoholic beverages such as beer liquor and mixed drinks for consumption This is the most common arrangement in North America and Europe. Many establishments offer karaoke on a weekly schedule, while some have shows every night. Such establishments commonly invest more in both equipment and song discs, and are often extremely popular, with an hour or more wait between a singer's opportunities to take the stage (called the rotation). East Asian, North American and other Western karaoke arrangements are usually add-ons to an existing bar or social lounge. Most of these establishments allow patrons to sing for free, with the expectation that sufficient revenue will be made selling food and drink to the singers. Less commonly, the patron wishing to sing must pay a small fee for each song they sing.
In some traditional Chinese restaurants, there are so-called "mahjong-karaoke rooms" where the elderly can play mahjong and teenagers can enjoy karaoke. Dim sum is the name for a Chinese cuisine which involves a wide range of light dishes served alongside Chinese tea. Mahjong (also called mah-jongg by the American association Traditional Chinese 麻將 Pinyin: májiàng is a Game for four players that originated in The result is fewer complaints about boredom but more noise.
Noise regulations must be always considered, especially by those intent on bringing karaoke into residential areas. Noise regulation includes Statutes or guidelines relating to sound transmission established by national state or provincial and Municipal levels of government
Karaoke terms
- Jūhachiban
- (also ohako 十八番, literally, number 18). Many karaoke singers have one song which they are especially good at and which they use to show off their singing abilities. In Japan, this is called jūhachiban in reference to the 18 most popular kabuki plays. is a form of traditional Japanese theatre. Kabuki theatre is known for the stylization of its drama and for the elaborate Make-up worn by some of its performers In Hong Kong, such a song is called a "banquet song" (飲歌).
- Karamovie or Movioke
- Karaoke using scenes from movies. Movieoke is a form of Entertainment in which an amateur actor or actors perform along with a muted DVD in order to give voice to the character in the film Amateur actors replace their favorite movie stars in popular movies. Usually facilitated by software or remote control muting and screen blanking/freezing. Karamovie originated in 2003.
- Karaoke jockey or KJ
- A karaoke jockey plays and manages the music for a venue. The role of the KJ often includes announcing song titles and whose turn it is to use the microphone.
Hitokara
Some people go karaoke alone. It is called hitokara (ヒトカラ, ヒト hito, "one person" or "alone" and カラ kara, "karaoke") in Japan.
Karaoke in culture
Karaoke in Korean culture
In July 2007, the nation of North Korea issued an edict banning, among other similar establishments, karaoke bars from operating in the country. North Korea is the commonly used short form name for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (or DPRK) a State located in East Asia, The Ministry of Security officially stated that the ban was enacted to "crush enemy scheming and to squarely confront those who threaten the maintenance of the socialist system. "[4]
There have been expressions of dissatisfaction in South Korea with respect to the circulation of Japanese music and songs via karaoke. South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea and often referred to as Korea ( Korean: 대한민국 tɛː [5]
Karaoke in film
Karaoke has been depicted in a variety of movies and television shows, including the 1996 comedy The Cable Guy, the 1997 romantic comedy My Best Friend's Wedding, the 2006 Disney film High School Musical, the 2003 film Lost in Translation, the TV show Desperate Housewives, and the 1997 Korean gangster comedy No. 3. Television ( TV) is a widely used Telecommunication medium for sending ( Broadcasting) and receiving moving Images, either monochromatic Comedy film is a genre of Film in which the main emphasis is on humor. The Cable Guy is a 1996 black comedy film directed by Ben Stiller and starring Jim Carrey and Matthew Broderick. Romantic comedy films, colloquially known as romcom, are movies with light-hearted humorous plotlines centered around romantic ideals such as a True love able to This article is about the Julia Roberts film For the Scrubs episode see My Best Friend's Wedding My Best Friend's High School Musical is an Emmy Award -winning American Television film. Lost in Translation is a 2003 comedy-drama film starring Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson. Desperate Housewives is an American Television Dramedy series created by Marc Cherry, who also serves as Show runner, and produced Korea is a geographic area composed of two sovereign countries a civilization and a former state situated on the Korean Peninsula in East Asia. For other uses see Gangsta. A gangster is a criminal who is or at some point almost invariably becomes a member of a persistent violent No 3 ( 넘버3) ( 1997) is a South Korean gangster comedy film Rush Hour 2 includes a karaoke performance by Chris Tucker, where he upstages one of the tone-deaf locals by singing Michael Jackson's "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough". Rush Hour 2 is a 2001 martial arts / buddy cop Film starring Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan. Christopher "Chris" Tucker (born August 31, 1972) is an American Actor and Comedian most widely known for his roles Michael Joseph Jackson (born August 29 1958 is an American musician entertainer and businessman " Don’t Stop 'til You Get Enough " was the first hit single from Michael Jackson ’s 1979 Off the Wall album his first Karaoke is central to the 2000 movie Duets, which features a father and daughter competing in karaoke contests. It is also integral to the 2001 film Jackpot, in which an aspiring singer tours karaoke bars hoping to catch his big break as a country star. Jackpot is a 2001 Comedy-drama Film directed by Michael Polish and written by Michael and his brother Mark Polish Country music is a blend of popular musical forms originally found in the Southern United States and the Appalachian Mountains. Several episodes of Angel feature the demonic karaoke bar Caritas, whose proprietor Lorne (Andy Hallett) can tell fortunes based on the songs he hears. Angel is an American Television series, a Spin-off of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Andy Hallett (born 4 August 1975) is an American singer and actor best known for playing the part of Lorne ('The Host' in the television series Karaoke is the central theme of The Karaoke King, an independent film released in 2006. The Karaoke King is a Comedy film released in March 2007. It revolves around a fictional bar named Lil's in Central Florida, known as the birthplace
World records
Finland holds the record for the largest number of people singing karaoke at one time, for 80,000 people singing "Hard Rock Hallelujah" on 26 May 2006 in Helsinki after Lordi won the Eurovision Song Contest. Finland, officially the Republic of Finland ( is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. "Hard Rock Hallelujah" is a song by the Finnish heavy metal band Lordi, which won the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest with 292 points Events 451 - The Battle of Avarayr between Armenian rebels and the Sassanid Empire takes place Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Lordi is a heavy metal quintet from Finland. The concept for Lordi was devised in 1992 however the band was not formed until 1996 by Tomi Putaansuu (known
China holds the record for the longest non-stop rally of karaoke, for 214 hours, 20 minutes, and eight seconds on 1 January 2008. China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National New Year See also New Year The Ancient Romans began their consular year on January 1st since 153 BC 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common [6]
References
- ^ Who Invented the Karaoke Machine? Events-in-Music. com
- ^ Time 100:Daisuke Inoue, August 23-30, 1999 VOL. 154 NO. 7/8
- ^ About:Inventors, Roberto del Rosario Accessed January 6, 2007
- ^ "Nation bans karaoke bars, Internet cafes?", Yahoo! News, Yahoo!, 2007-07-12. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1191 - Saladin 's garrison surrenders ending the two-year Siege of Acre. Retrieved on 2007-07-12. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1191 - Saladin 's garrison surrenders ending the two-year Siege of Acre.
- ^ Japanese songs enter South Korea by Karaoke. [1] (Korean)
- ^ Non stop marathon singing breaks world record [2]
See also
External links
- Karaoke at the Open Directory Project
Dictionary
karaoke
-noun
- A form of entertainment popular in clubs, at parties, etc, in which individual members of the public sing along to pre-recorded instrumental versions of popular songs, the lyrics of which are displayed for the singer on a screen in time with the music
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