We explain what karaoke is and what it means in Japanese. In addition, we tell you when karaoke day is and its history.
What is karaoke?
Karaoke is a form of entertainment that consists of singing the lyrics of a song from which its original lyrics have been removed that is, from which the instruments and the melody are reproduced, but not the singing voice. This requires specialized machines (karaoke machines) or simply music players with karaoke capabilities.
Karaoke singers are usually amateurs who sing over the track of a song whose lyrics are usually printed on the machine's screen. It is common for these to be groups of friends, either for leisure or for some celebration, but there are also karaoke contests and competitions, in which different singers amateurs They compete to see who makes the most faithful or, on the contrary, most original interpretation of the reproduced song.
The term “karaoke” is of Japanese origin, and is composed of the voices Kara (“empty”) and ok (contraction of okesutorathat is, “orchestra”), so it can be translated as “empty orchestra”, that is, an orchestra without a vocalist. Karaoke originated in the 1970s in the city of Kobe, Japan, and It was the invention of the Japanese singer Daisuke Inoue, who devised it as a business model: renting machines with his most popular songs, which were played without his voice, so that his fans could sing them in exchange for a few coins.
Initially, these machines had instrumental recordings of the singer's songs, which were later implemented in portable formats: CDs and DVDs. Since then, karaoke became so popular in Japan and other countries that there was an explosion of consumption of karaoke machines and records, no longer with the songs of its inventor, but with the trendy songs in each country.
To make this possible, different musical reproduction systems were designed in the 1980s, equipped with pitch modifiers and voice suppressor elements, and later television screens to show the sequence of the lyrics of the song and provide some accompaniment. with music videos or computer animations.
At the end of the 20th century, karaoke bars became particularly famous as a setting for parties, meetings and celebrations, and karaoke also had an important presence in television media and cinema. Similarly, At the beginning of the 21st century, karaoke gained popularity on virtual platforms and video games. This is why World Karaoke Day is celebrated every July 20.
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References
- “Karaoke” on Wikipedia.
- “Etymology of Karaoke” in the Online Spanish Etymological Dictionary.
- “Karaoke (entertainment)” in The Encyclopaedia Britannica.
