Until this past weekend, my experience with karaoke had been exclusively in the privacy of someone’s home or (Korean-style) a room full of friends. Well, a friend of mine took me and my wife to a karaoke place, and even though there were moments of fun, I think I’m going to stick with singing with friends I know can sing. Let me just say that one of the Yelp! reviews for this place includes this snippet:
Now I am not the type of person that usually sings karaoke. i guess i am what you would call tone-deaf, but at Rick’s the people are so supportive and nice, that i feel comfortable going up and singing my little heart out to my favorite go-gos songs!
I didn’t use to think supportive and nice could ever be bad, but now I’m thinking it definitely can be. There were a couple of standouts that night, but most of the performers were of the tone-deaf variety. Maybe I’m going out on a limb here—if you know you’re tone-deaf, please stay at home and sing in the shower… or cough up some dough for voice lessons. Please don’t sing in public. Thank you.
Is not the point of Karaoke that tone-deaf people can have fun without being judged?
That’s what they made Korean karaoke for.
In Korean karaoke, you rent a private room with your friends and sing to each other. There’s a screen, a loud sound system, a couple of cozy couches, a coffee table, and spinning lights… but the room is more or less sound-proof, so you don’t have to subject others to your bad singing.
Does that mean that Koreans can’t sing? (joking :) )