One other extremely annoying thing about karaoke is the importance of song choice. Sometimes it can be fun and unexpected but all too often people way too in their own heads and up their own asses about what they're singing. It's very a strange site for aesthetic competition but a real one nonetheless. I know some people just go up there and sing but for many others (anecdotally) it's a way for them to show off their pop cultural taste in the most agitating way possible.
Possibly one reads too much into karaoke (and by one I mean Raftery and yes, possibly you)? Agreed the experience of a karaoke bar is usually soul-crushingly awful, but then isn’t most of going-out and broadly-defined ‘culture’? I am a singer of violently limited range and a long-term objector to the existence of thespians / Glee, yet a karaoke addict faithful over decades to exactly 1 song. And frankly, karaoke was never meant for cultural criticism, it was meant for… me. So do please leave me my love-affair with badly belting Bryan Adams to randos; no one is forcing you to attend :)
(Also do please continue the recent spate of Deez Links whinging posts; they’re ridiculously refreshing)
The last time I did Karaoke was in the 90s, on a cruise, where I dragged my husband up to duet on "Don't Go Breakin' My Heart". We'd never see these people again, so who cares? But in front of people I know? No thanks.
One other extremely annoying thing about karaoke is the importance of song choice. Sometimes it can be fun and unexpected but all too often people way too in their own heads and up their own asses about what they're singing. It's very a strange site for aesthetic competition but a real one nonetheless. I know some people just go up there and sing but for many others (anecdotally) it's a way for them to show off their pop cultural taste in the most agitating way possible.
Possibly one reads too much into karaoke (and by one I mean Raftery and yes, possibly you)? Agreed the experience of a karaoke bar is usually soul-crushingly awful, but then isn’t most of going-out and broadly-defined ‘culture’? I am a singer of violently limited range and a long-term objector to the existence of thespians / Glee, yet a karaoke addict faithful over decades to exactly 1 song. And frankly, karaoke was never meant for cultural criticism, it was meant for… me. So do please leave me my love-affair with badly belting Bryan Adams to randos; no one is forcing you to attend :)
(Also do please continue the recent spate of Deez Links whinging posts; they’re ridiculously refreshing)
The last time I did Karaoke was in the 90s, on a cruise, where I dragged my husband up to duet on "Don't Go Breakin' My Heart". We'd never see these people again, so who cares? But in front of people I know? No thanks.
I hope gene park doesn't read this