Finally some real research on karaoke!

Dr. Kevin Brown (associate prof at the University of Missouri) earned his doctorate from the University of Colorado doing an ethnographic study of karaoke. Finally, a university with a KhD program! Here we have an excerpt from his thesis.

Brown speaks of the "karaoke dream", which he defines as: "the fantasy that one will be 'discovered' singing karaoke and go on to make their mark on the 'big time' entertainment industry." Brown discusses a karaoke singer by the name of Roger who had demo CDs made, and was talking with people who had contacts in Vegas.

Obviously, a lot of karaoke singers  have something of that fantasy. I personally have a fantasy of singing just once to a huge crowd with a great band behind me. Just once, though. I certainly don't want to have to spend a year or two of voice training. And I definitely have no interest whatsoever in spending the years and years of singing every weekend in every dive in Hoboken in order to pay my dues!! 

But karaoke is not the way to actually reach the karaoke dream. My research ("getting discovered through karaoke", and "update on getting discovered") shows that nobody made it to the big time by jumping up on stage at a karaoke bar. Well... maybe someone did. I just haven't found them yet.

If a large percentage of karaoke singers were doing karaoke in the hope of becoming a star, then they would all get disappointed and just stay home and watch Glee. Since karaoke appears to still be popular, I am guessing that people are not actually trying to reach that dream, but rather they are singing karaoke in order to experience a facsimile of that dream, if only for a brief moment.

In a previous blog I asserted that karaoke was an opportunity for people to sing in groups. I submit this blog as reason #2 - karaoke is an opportunity to sample what it feels like to be a rock star.