Please answer all of the questions below and generate two of your own.
- Can you relate to the author’s feelings of nervousness about singing karaoke, as he describes at the start of chapter 1? How did you feel the first time you sang karaoke? How often do you sing karaoke these days? Has the experience changed at all for you over time?
- Outline the basic history of karaoke in Japan. What does the term “karaoke” mean? When was the technology for karaoke invented?
- What does Lum mean when he writes: “I suggest that we conceptualize those people who participate in karaoke scenes not just as media consumers who read what they buy from the market (karaoke music) but as producers of the indigenized cultural products (their own karaoke episodes and performances) they at the same time consume.” Why might it be important to acknowledge the role that karaoke performers play in producing rather than just consuming music?
- Why does karaoke software not allow the performance of bongwong songs?
- Why can performing yutkuk with karaoke accompaniment as opposed to live musicians have a negative effect on singers?
