Karaoke comes from the Japanese word ‘kara’ and ‘one’, meaning ‘empty’ and ‘orchestra’. A karaoke performance can be termed a ‘virtual’ performance, in that a person can walk up to the stage and start singing without the aid of a live band. Karaoke machines provide that music. In a karaoke performance, the voice of the original singer is reduced in volume or is totally absent. Generally, there is a display of the song’s lyrics, as well as psychedelic color changes that are coordinated with the music.

This form of entertainment has been popular in East Asia for two decades. Musical entertainment has always been a permanent fixture at parties in Japan. It is noteworthy that singing and dancing was considered an integral part of a samurai warrior’s growth. ‘‘Utagoe Kissa’’ or ‘song coffee shop’ in direct translation, became a rage in Japan during the Taisho rule (1912 -1926), where customers used to test out their singing skills backed up by music from a live band.

In the 1970s, a singer named Daisuke Inoue who performed in a coffee shop was inundated with requests to lend his recordings so that people could sing along with them. Inoue realized that he could make money in this potentially lucrative venture and invented a tape recorder that played a song for a coin worth 100-yen. This was the birth of the karaoke machine. Initially, this form of entertainment was criticized for its unoriginality and its exorbitant price. In those days, a 100 yen could buy two lunches. However, it was gradually accepted into the main stream, and Inoue was given the Nobel Prize for his invention in 2004.

Early on, cassette tapes were used in the machine; but with technology, VCDs, CDs and DVDs gradually took the place of tapes. Karaoke soon spread to the rest of Asia and eventually the United States and other Western countries. Though it met with the expected disapproval from certain quarters, it has slowly become a great form of nightclub entertainment.