What's Karaoke?

Karaoke (properly pronounced "ca-roh-kee") is Japanese for "empty orchestra". With the Japanese it had its start in the 1970's. But Americans have been doing Karaoke ("carry-okee"..what Americans call it) since the '50's, when they sang along with Mitch Miller and his bouncing ball! Today, Karaoke is played through a Karaoke system using either CDG's or computers. Some KJ's still use the old Laser Discs. The music is usually produced similar to the version on the orginal recording, most the time with back-up vocals, and the lyrics are panned on a TV screen in time with the music. All you do is supply the lead vocal and follow the lyrics on the screen as they change colors. Karaoke is very popular in all parts of the United States and most KJ's have songs that go all the way back like "Red River Valley" to today's most recent "Pop" and "Country" hits...at least a good KJ will!