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Karaoke is a Japanese coined word. Kara means empty in English, and oke is a kind of abbreviation of orchestra. The word karaoke itself means the songs without vocals for the sake of the singing at the place where band cannot be prepared (such as small halls, bars, and so on). Today, the word mainly refers to singing with karaoke music, which is very popular in Japan as form of recreation.

Genesis At first (I don't know but it could be in '70s...) karaoke music was prepared with cassette tapes or multi-track tapes and "a lyrics booklet". In those days people were singning songs by referring the booklet.

In '80s, two types of video disc systems were used as the medium for karaoke: Pioneer's LaserDisc and Victor's VHD. With these systems, lyrics are displayed on a monitor and so people don't have to remember the line of lyrics which they are singing, or turn the page of the booklet. They also contain video clips correlated with songs.

In the late '80s or the early '90s, some companies modified the format of compact disc (CD) to record some additional information (videos, lyrics, etc) in it. CD karaoke system is much smaller than LaserDisc one, and so it was expected to be a future standard.

The technology of synthesizers were also applied to shrink the karaoke system.

The music data was stored as analog (or digital-sampling) signals in the tape or the disc systems. On the other hand, the data was stored as digital MIDI files and prepared with ROM cartridge in the synthesizer karaoke system. So the size of the system is much more smaller than CD systems. Another advantage of the synthesizer systems is that we can easily change the pitch and key of songs.

The quality of the music was insufficient in the early systems, but it has become brilliant in the latest ones.

In 1993, I guess, an amazing karaoke system was released: Tsuushin karaoke! (Ric Johnson has reported there's no tsuushin karaoke in the U.S. in mid-1997.)

The Japanese word tsuushin means (tele)communication in English. As you can imagine from its name, tsuushin karaoke uses N-ISDN (Narrow-band ISDN) to transfer the MIDI music data. Of course, the synthesizer systems are adopted as the terminal and then the size of the system is same as or a bit smaller than the normal synthesizer systems because ROM cartridge is not needed.

It is the advantage of tsuushin karaoke that the new songs can be installed as soon as it is released. As an extreme example, "Going Going Home" by H Jungle with T was said to be installed at the day when it was released as single CD.

Nowadays, most of karaoke fans in Japan play karaoke with tsuushin karaoke systems. Many non-karaoke companies, such as SEGA and TAITO, are coming into the karaoke industry, and so there is excessive competition.

Before the disc karaoke system was released, karaoke had not been a form of home entertainment. The tape karaoke systems were mainly installed in liquor bars, sake bars and Japanese-style hotels. People went to those places not for singing, but for drinking or hanging out.

As the LaserDisc system got popular, there appeared a novel entertainment place: Karaoke box. A typical karaoke box has several rooms. Each room has a soundproof structure and a capacity of from 4 to 10, contains sofas or divans, one karaoke system (disc, synthesizer or ISDN), and an air conditioner. Usually each room rents to a single group, so you can enjoy karaoke without any interference from other groups. People in Japan go to karaoke boxes "just for singing", even though drinks and snacks are prepared there.

Try it out!!!

Even though you are now in Japan and not familiar with Japanese songs, don't worry. There is a large repertoire of English, Chinese and Korean songs. For example, a certain karaoke system has a lot of the major numbers of the Beatles, the Monkeys, the Beach Boys, Queen, the Eagles, Eric Clapton, Billy Joel, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Van Halen, Bon Jovi, Mariah Carey, Snow, Shampoo, etc. "Anarchy in the U.K." by Sex Pistols and "Relax" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood are all available!