Comments on: I Want Karaoke Tracks

By: Kiriska

Kiriska — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 03:28:00 +0000

That's actually another thing I've always wondered about -- why there aren't as many singles released in America and/or why not as many people buy them. I never hear about singles in the States; hell, I honestly didn't even know musicians released singles in the States for the longest time. It kind of goes back to a post I made last year about how not many American shows promote current musicians and vice versa, and though there are exceptions to that observations, the relationship isn't nearly as utilized as it is in Japan.

I wonder if people don't buy as many singles in the States because there aren't as many extras or b-sides on them? And if that's the case, I wonder whether it'd really be so hard to include some.

By: omo

omo — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 02:55:00 +0000

I don’t know, that’s a great question. But one thing that always was the case is that singles just don’t sell very well in America. People who collected singles tend to be hardcore fans or music aficionados and not casual people. I guess that also means they’re less likely to just sing karaoke to them.

In Japan this is less the case and a lot of people also just buy singles (such as theme songs to TV shows and movies) that they like, not the full albums. And as we know, karaoke is popular in Japan, so the off-vocal tracks are on the singles as a standard thing to do.

By: Kiriska

Kiriska — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 17:27:00 +0000

Hmm, well, those theories definitely make sense. In that case, I wonder if the reason karaoke tracks are absent from most American releases is because of the absence of a widespread karaoke culture? Or is it more of a copyright concern?

By: omo

omo — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 17:17:00 +0000

Hmmmm. Some people karaoke at a bar to sing as well. It's like American Idol, y'know.

I don't know why it's not as wide spread, but I can guess. There are already a lot of common-folk musical traditions as part of Americana (gospel, church stuff, easier to make your own band because people have garages here) that Japan just doesn't have, for example. There's also the fact that Japan is a much more densely populated place, so karaoke booths and the like serves both as a private place to sing and more economically feasible to run to dedicate to just karaoke alone.

I'm only guessing.

By: Kiriska

Kiriska — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 16:56:00 +0000

I kind of think karaoke at a bar is different from an actual karaoke place since the main purpose of the former is still to drink and the main purpose of the latter is to actually sing, whether or not alcohol is involved.

Even if there are karaoke tracks to more American music, I still really want to know why it isn't more widespread when, like you said, games like Rock Band are so popular. And even then, karaoke machines for home use have existed for ages and ages, but Rock Band is only now a huge hit? It's kind of puzzling to me. Is it just because Rock Band incorporates the rest of the band and not just the singer?

By: omo

omo — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 16:17:00 +0000

Americans do karaoke in bars, and if you care to bar hop you will see it all over the place, even if just occasionally. Well, I speak only from experience in my local areas (which are mostly suburbs near urban areas and cities in the US northeast). It's rare to see it at a family restaurant or a bar & grill though.

As to karaoke tracks, I think you might find something interesting if you dig deeper. There are karaoke tracks for a lot of stuff out there, even American music, but you are right that if you hit up a booth karaoke place in Manhattan you can find just about every song you think you know that exist in Japan. It's not as much the case for American music. What I found tho is that for most songs people who would bother to sing, there are off vocal tracks to them.

Heck, that's what all those new music games like Rock Band is all about.

A lot of the times what these Japanese karaoke machine/music companies do is they license the stuff, and obtain the off vocal tracks when they could. When it isn't available (or cost too much $) they'll just sew together a MIDI or something. You're not going to find that on a CD single, obviously.

Getting karaoke tracks as a c/w track from a single is really a unique-to-Japan thing, and since anyone buying the single will have it, it's also easy to find as pirated online. In America off vocal tracks are usually locked in as either a proprietary format associated with certain karaoke machines, or sold as collections separately from the mainstream. So it's hard to even just find them sometimes.