ISALC, Lewis and Clark College

You Can Be A Singer! by Aya Katayanagi

 

To sing a song has been deeply related to human life from ancient times. People enjoy singing songs to babies and they enjoy listening to them. In recent years, there has been a boom in "karaoke" in Japan. These are disk players with voice mixing facilities and are used to provide musical accompaniment for solos or singalongs. The "kara" of kara-oke means empty, while the "oke" is a Japanese abbreviation of the English word, "orchestra." These two words coming together mean an orchestra without a vocalist. Karaoke systems are widespread in many countries nowadays. I think "karaoke bars" are well known by Americans, so they imagine karaoke bars when they hear "karaoke," but actually we have few karaoke bars in Japan. What we call "karaoke box" is more popular in Japan.

You can see many buildings, which say "karaoke box" here and there in Japan. The karaoke box consists of a lot of isolated rooms on several floors and each of those rooms has a karaoke set in it. You can go there with friends or with your family to enjoy singing. No strangers can see you or listen to you singing. Not a few people, no matter what their age or gender, go there often to enjoy singing out loud, to seek relief from daily stress or just for fun. Everyone can be a singer for that moment.

To relish karaoke is not difficult at all. All you have to do is find some friends to go with you and then you will be ready to have fun. After that, maybe you want to go to Shinjuku, one of the metropolitan parts of Japan, to find your karaoke box. Shinjuku is a place where mainly fashionably dressed youths gather. There are huge shopping malls, video centers, various kinds of restaurants, movie theaters and many kinds of amusement around the Shinjuku station. It is very crowded, especially on weekends, and you can hardly walk through the area. You also see tons of karaoke boxes there. But don't worry if you don't know where to go because people who work at those karaoke boxes are on the street, too, and they will come up to you and talk to you. Since all karaoke staff want to have as many customers as they can, they introduce you to the kinds of service they have in exaggerated and cheerful voices, or they offer you a discount to visit their karaoke box. They usually wear uniforms with bright colors and are very trustworthy, so that you can decide on a place to visit without having difficulties. Generally they charge you one or two dollars each per hour if it's daytime and they show you the way and get a room for you. The room has some couches, two microphones, remote controls for the air conditioner, karaoke set, menus for snacks and drinks, thick song books on a table, and a big TV with karaoke system just for you and your company. The room also has a telephone that is connected to the reception desk; therefore, you can order some food or drinks from that phone. They will also call you when your time is up.

After you have settled into the room and gotten something to eat or drink, you are all ready to sing. You look up one of the songbooks and choose a song you wish to sing. You can look up the songs in two different ways. One side of the book has the titles of the songs, names of singers and five or six-digit code numbers following them. The other side of the book starts with singers' names, titles and numbers, So that you can look up songs either by the singer's name or title of the song. After you choose a song to sing, enter the code numbers of the song into the remote control by pushing the buttons on it to send information to the karaoke set. Soon your music will start. The remote control also has a section to change the key or tempo of the songs. If you feel the key of the song is too high or low for you, or too fast or slow, you can adjust them as you want. Also, if you want to have harmony, you can. Some karaoke sets even have a voice change system. You can change you voice from a woman's to a man's, and a man's to a woman's. This is very interesting. When you finish singing, you can search for the next song while another person is singing. This is how it goes, but the important thing here is you should listen to other people singing at the same time. Usually people like to have audiences, and you want them to listen to you while you are singing, too. You can fee like a real singer if you have someone to listen to you, and that's what people like when doing karaoke.

Since you will have your own room and there will be no unfamiliar people watching you, you will feel more comfortable singing in a karaoke box than singing in front of many people, like in karaoke bars. You can spend the time in a more relaxed atmosphere, which is more enjoyable. You can sing a duet with your friend if you want, and you can dance if you like, but this doesn't mean that you can do whatever you want or misbehave in the room. There are several rules to protect your personal rights and to ensure that you enjoy yourselves comfortably. You should not go look into other rooms. You can't smoke or drink if you are under twenty. Though here are no certain people to patrol because they don't want to make their customers feel nervous, it is important to follow these rules for everyone to have a good time.

Once you have experienced karaoke, you might want to go again and again, though some people would not like singing in front of people even if they were friends or family. But in my opinion, you can still have a lot of fun there, even if you don't sing. We make jokes and we talk as if we were at home. I personally like karaoke very much. I like singing and I have so much fun every time I go. I think we are seeking a way to express ourselves to people whom we like, and we want to say, "Listen to me! I am here!" Karaoke allows us to express who we are and what we like. I encourage you to try it once in your life. Let's go sing! It is so exciting. You can be a singer!

Created by: krauss@lclark.edu
Updated: 11/1/99