The Japanese word "karaoke" has become popular in the United States. For example, the shopping channel on the cable TV introduced a karaoke machine for home use, and a video stores sell karaoke videos these days.

The term karaoke consists of two Japanese words: "kara" and "oke." "Kara" means "empty" and "oke" is the abbreviation for the word "orchestra." These words were used by professional kayô-kyoku recording studio engineers who make sound recordings which contain only orchestra accompaniment. These recordings on multi-track tapes leave the vocal track blank, or empty (kara). The resulted tapes are called "orchestra (oke) with empty (kara) vocal track." The abbreviation for this is "kara-oke."

Karaoke began in a snack bar in Kôbe in 1972. The bar used karaoke tapes of professional singers to offer their customers a new type of entertainment. In 1976, the audio company Clarion made the first karaoke machine.

Various media can be used for karaoke. In the early 1980s, cassette and eight-track tapes were popular. The booklet of the song texts comes separately from the recording jacket, and customers can have it in hand when they sing a song. The laser disc machines, however, have taken over cassette karaoke gradually since they were released in 1982. The "rêzâ karaoke" (laser karaoke, or karaoke on laser discs) contains not only the sound, but also the song text as well as the movie which evokes the image of the song. The movie is made especially for the laser karaoke. The color of the song text, which appeasers at the bottom of the TV screen as subtitles, changes as the piece proceeds. This feature is made solely by humans; there is no machine to do this, even though it looks like it has been created by machine.

Today, almost everyone in Japan enjoys karaoke since karaoke machines was introduced in many "karaoke bars" and "karaoke boxes." The karaoke bar is a bar which features a karaoke machine and a small stage. The person who requests a song goes up to the stage and sings the song in the presence of other customers. Unfortunately, those customer usually do not listen to his/her singing seriously, unless a singer is really good at singing. The audience usually applaud the singer out of politeness, however.

Karaoke bars are frequently used when the Japanese have the "second party" or "Niji-kai" of a variety kinds of societies. Most Japanese people cannot refuse to sing a song. If one did, he/she may be considered an unsociable person. People who do not have a large song repertoire get into a trouble. They have a hard time not corrupting the party's festive atmosphere. When one brings those who do not have a good song repertoire, he/she usually persuade them by saying, "Hey, you don't have to sing. Just come with me!" However, there hardly is a case when any one of the group member does not sing, because everybody is forced to sing. People say, "Why don't you sing? Only one song is enough."

Karaoke boxes are small rooms with karaoke machines. A group of people go there and spend an hour or two. The owner of the karaoke boxes rents out a "box" and charges the people from 15 to 20 dollars per hour, regardless of how many people are using the box and how many songs people sing. The people in the box try to sing as many songs as possible to save money. While one person is singing, other people are looking rigorously through the karaoke piece list, wondering which piece they are going to sing next. People usually do not listen to the other person's singing seriously unless the singer is very skillful. It is the same way in the karaoke bars.

Karaoke boxes can be used for friendly gatherings. For example, high school students go there after they finish their school. One's neighbors (usually female, especially housewives) get together at a karaoke box to spend an hour or two just to reduce the mental stress in their everyday lives.

The karaoke repertoire is enormous. It includes recent hit songs, the old Japanese pops, TV songs, classical songs, and even some American songs.

Each karaoke bar and karaoke box needs to build up the vast library of the hit tunes in karaoke. These days, however, tsûshin-karaoke, or karaoke using computers has increasingly become popular in Japan and has solved the repertoire problem in the karaoke bars and karaoke boxes. With tsûshin-karaoke, Karaoke bars and boxes do not have to buy expensive laser discs, because they can obtain the sound and song texts via computer network. There are a few companies which make karaoke sound MIDI flies. Whenever karaoke bars or karaoke boxes need a certain piece, they access the main computers in the karaoke companies and transfer the MIDI files of the piece. Each karaoke bar or box has a module to change MIDI data into sound.

For personal use, karaoke on cassette tapes and CDs are more popular than laserdisks. There is a special feature for tape karaoke and CD karaoke called "onsei-tajyu" (double tracks). In onsei-tajyu karaoke, two things are heard: the orchestra (karaoke) part and the voice part (which is sung by onta-kasyu, or singers for onsei-tajyu karaoke), recorded on different channels. When one wants to sing along with the orchestra, he/she can turn off the voice part by changing the stereo set's balance (Sound Example 1).

Karaoke increasingly has become a big business. It is a part of the Japanese life. It introduces the latest hit songs as well as old songs. Karaoke also raised the sales of the recordings of kayô-kyoku, because the Japanese try to listen to many pieces to sing in karaoke.

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