|
Karaoke (カラオケ in Japanese) is a form of entertainment where an amateur
singer sings along with recorded music consisting of a usually well-known
song in which the voice of the original singer is absent or less loud, and
where the amateur singer can read the lyrics from a display. Karaoke has
been a popular form of entertainment in east Asia since at least the 1980s,
and has since spread to other parts of the world.
Origin of the word
The Japanese word stems from the words: "kara" (空) which means 'empty'
(same as in Karate) and "oke" which is short for 'orchestra'. The words
together make a contraction meaning 'empty orchestra' literally. The term is
half Japanese and half English and is considered a foreign word as a whole
and hence usually written in katakana. The term karaoke can be interpreted
as "virtual orchestra" because one can specify a key to the music and start
singing along without the presence of a live band or orchestra. In the
United States, the word is often pronounced incorrectly as care-ree-OH-kee
or ker-OH-kee. The original Japanese pronunciation is ka-ra-uh-KEH.
History
The industry started in Japan in the early 1970s. The fad spread to the
rest of Asia and then to the United States in the 90s. Facilities such as
karaoke bars, or KTV parlors provide the venue, equipment and software for
amateur singers to entertain or 'torture' each other. Its popularity has
spread to the United States and other Western countries, where some people
still regard it as purely a method for the intoxicated to embarrass
themselves, but as the novelty has worn off many now take it slightly more
seriously.
Technology
The most bare-bone karaoke machine consists of an audio input, a pitch
alternation switch and an audio output. Some advanced machines provide vocal
suppression so that one can feed regular songs into the machine to filter
out or greatly suppress the voice of the original singer. Most common
machines are audio mixers with microphone input built-in with CD-G, Video
CD, Laser Disc, or DVD players which play with special media that encode the
original song in one audio track and music only in another track. The video
media also enable the display of the lyrics graphically on screen in sync
with the music. In some countries, karaoke with video lyrics display
capablities is also called KTV. Karaoke machines may involve technology that
electronically changes the pitch of music so that amateur singers can sing
along to any music source by choosing a key that is appropriate for
individual's vocal range. Sing-along machines that lack the pitch
alternating feature are seldom referred as Karaoke.
MIDI applications
Some computer programs that serve a similar purpose to the standard
karaoke machine have been developed that use MIDI instrumentation to
generate the accompaniment rather than a recorded track. This has the
advantage of making transposition technically trivial and also shrinks the
information needed to provide the accompaniment to the point where it is
easy to transfer them across the Internet, even over slow connections..The
standard file format used is *.KAR, which is an extension of the standard
.MID MIDI disk format, and can be played unaltered by MIDI player software.
Related ideas
Karaoke bar/Karaoke restaurant
Karaoke bar/Karaoke restaurant is simply a bar/restaurant with karaoke
equipments so that people can sing publicly. It is oppose to many
traditional bars, where professional singers maybe asked to perform specific
songs. Karaoke bars often appear in movies and TV shows (for example, the
1997 Korean movie Number 3), where characters are often depicted as being
drunk and singing off-key.
Karaoke room
Some karaoke restaurants are divided up into small, private rooms
equipped with karaoke equipments. Each group of customers takes its own
room, making the experience more intimate and less embarrassing for all
concerned. Some customers have one song which they are especially good at,
and which they use to show off their singing abilities. An English
translation of such a song is "number 18," which is slang in Korean and
mildly obscene.
In some traditional Chinese restaurants, there are so-called
"mahjong-karaoke rooms" where elderly can play mahjong and teenagers can
enjoy karaoke. The result is less complaints about boredom but more noise.
Karaoke VCD
The takeoff of Video CDs in Southeast Asia is partly due to the cheap but
tolerable quality, and partly due to the popularity of karaoke. Many VCD
players in Southeast Asia have built-in Karaoke function. If users disable
the singer's voice and let the music alone, they can play karaoke. See
Techology above.
In the past, there were only pop song karaoke VCDs. Nowadays, different
types of karaoke VCD are available. Cantonese opera karaoke VCD is now a big
hit among elderly in Hong Kong.
|
