Friday, July 30, 2010

Summer Vaction Activity 2: Karaoke

I've had quite a bit of summer vacation activities. I've gone to the movies, hit the beach, and even bought a PS3. My favorite activity, though, has been karaoke.
This may come as a surprise to some, and it does for myself, for 2 huge reasons:
1. I can't sing. At all. I'm not being modest.
2. My choice of music isn't very conducive to karaoke.
I like rock, and you don't sing rock songs as much as you belt them out. Plus, the driving force in rock is the instruments themselves, which are boiled down to computer sound beats in karaoke. All-in-all, what you think sounds good as you rock out in the car sounds bare, unnatural, and just plain wrong in karaoke. Finally, the final nail in the karaoke rock singer's coffin is the fact that there's usually guitar solos (that sounds like a computer programmer made it), leaving you hanging with nothing to do except to speed up the song. Your situation becomes more dire if you are in Japan. The karaoke machine won't have that Dashboard Confessional song that everyone knew the words to in America a couple years ago, and even if it did, if you are surrounded by Japanese friends, they won't know it.
So, what's a rocker to do when faced in choosing a song in Japanese karaoke?
The best thing to do is to break down your genre wall, have fun, and sing those annoying pop songs that everyone has heard (even the Japanese) thousands of times. I'm sure all of us can sing a Britney Spears or Avril Lavigne song, even if it's muddling through the words until you get to the chorus.
In between the worldwide familiar pop songs, I like trying to take a stab at some Japanese/Korean pop songs I know, even though I usually cajole a friend to sing with me. Many have a bit of English in them. I'm getting more and more familiar with them as I try them and watch my friends sing them.
If all else fails, sing The Beatles.

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