Karaoke Forums

They just opened up a place here that features what I will call Asian-style karaoke, where the participants go into a small room as a group (8 or 10 people at the most) and have their own machine instead of a single singer getting up in front of every patron in the establishment.  When I was there I called it "Japanese-style," but they insisted that it was actually Korean-style, I presume because the place is owned and run by a Korean family.  Anyway, I had never been to a place like that before, and they tell me it's pretty unusual outside of bigger cities (in the US, at least).

I was there for lunch, early, so they didn't have many customers (I think I was the only one) and had time to show me around.   It's also a restaurant that serves pizza and barbecue dishes in addition to some Korean food.  The karaoke rooms were off down one wing.  They each have a big flat-screen TV on the wall and a computerized karaoke machine that looks like one of those old Philco radios.  The machines were made for the non-English market and a lot of the buttons had notations on them in Korean, so the guy had to show me which buttons did what.

They had a songbook.  I didn't go through the whole thing but it looked to me like only a minority of the songs they had available were in English.  The entire songbook was large enough, but if you took away the non-English songs it didn't seem like there was a whole lot left to choose from.  I also asked about the volume because when he showed me the machine the volume was really loud and I couldn't see how to turn it down.  He said the customers couldn't control the volume except by asking for help from an employee.

Supposedly they had the capabililty to record the customers' performances, but when he was demonstrating the machine I asked him how to do that and he said that they didn't have that available yet.

The cost of renting one of the karaoke rooms varied depending on how big a room you needed.  I think the cheapest one was like $20 per hour, and you could comfortably squeeze three or four adults in there and uncomfortably maybe one or two more.  For lunchtime hours (11 am-3 pm), the karaoke rooms were half price.

The concept was pretty neat, but it seemed to me that it didn't offer much advantage over doing karaoke at home.  The equipment and sound would be better at the restaurant, but I've got a much wider song selection at home and I don't have to pay my share toward $20 an hour to sing.  If I rented a room I presume I'd want to spend at least two hours, so unless it's lunchtime you're looking at a minimum $40 right there, plus the cost of food and drinks.  If they had the recording capability, then the experience would offer something I couldn't do on the home machine and then I could see the advantage.  They tell me that their first weekend they got quite a few groups of college students, though, and they loved it.

Anybody been to these types of places?  What did you think?

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Reward: nine yen in drawer.

Never been to one, never seen one...... but I don't think I would like that.

Heck, I have a nice karaoke set up at home I could always use if I want to just be with my friends/family.

Geez- maybe I'm just a bit self centered, but when I go out and sing, I want the WHOLE DANG CROWD listening to me:) I live for attention and applause. (not really, I'm just in a silly mood.... but no way would I give up a whole crowd scene for me and 8-10 friends in a private room)

That might, however, give some people (who don't own machines at home) the added dose of bravery, doing it more privately, to try out their singing skills and figure out if they ever WANT to do it ina normal type karaoke setting.

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♥ Laugh your heart out, dance in the rain. Cherish the memories, ignore the pain. Love and learn, forget and forgive. Because you only have one life to live. ♥

Charmin doesn't want JUST THE WHOLE DANG CROWD listening to her sing

She wants the WHOLE DANG CROWD ................AND.............................

The WHOLE DANG PARKING LOT...................AND.................................

The WHOLE DANG SHOPPING CENTER ACROSS THE PARKING LOT..........and.......................

The WHOLE DANG COUNTY FAIRGROUNDS ACROSS FROM THE SHOPPING CENTER ACROSS THE PARKING LOT listening to her sing!!!!  

AND BELIEVE ME.....she's got THE VOICE to MAKE THEM LISTEN!!!

 :wave:  LMAO  LMAO  LMAO


Hey Charm---dont forget Friday Night APRIL 6TH 7-9 pm!!

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"You know that I sing the Blues and I do not suffer fools. When I'm on that silver mic, it's gonna cut ya, just like a knife"-The SWINGCAT

Hey..... don't forget the whole new housing development on the other side of those fairgrounds.... and the other city across the ferry from that housing development:)

Haha, Kurt, you're a dork:)

(meant in the nicest possible way, of course)

PM me a reminder when that date draws nearer, okay? You know how forgetful Charm is:)



.

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♥ Laugh your heart out, dance in the rain. Cherish the memories, ignore the pain. Love and learn, forget and forgive. Because you only have one life to live. ♥

Any news on if your going to KJ?

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"You know that I sing the Blues and I do not suffer fools. When I'm on that silver mic, it's gonna cut ya, just like a knife"-The SWINGCAT

Private room karaoke with GRO....... woo the best form of entertainment

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I can neither confirm nor deny ever having or knowing anything about nothing.... mrscott

GRO?

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Reward: nine yen in drawer.

Yep.

But I'll tell ya all about it via PM, not in someone's thread. I'll send ya one when I get home from work today:)  :wave:

.

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♥ Laugh your heart out, dance in the rain. Cherish the memories, ignore the pain. Love and learn, forget and forgive. Because you only have one life to live. ♥

I heard about that place too Tom, my guess is that it won't do very well, but we do have a large asian population here in town, so maybe that will keep them in business.

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Satisfaction is the death of desire

Nathan, without hijacking the thread wonder if you could let me know how you got on in the competition?

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"Be who you are and say what you feel... Because those that matter... Don't mind...And those that mind... Don't matter."

Have you ever been to a Gentleman club/bar?............

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I can neither confirm nor deny ever having or knowing anything about nothing.... mrscott

No, I haven't.  I'm beginning to regret asking now.

Changing the subject, I just got an e-mail from a local KJ that he's going to be hosting a regular bar-style karaoke show at this same restaurant on Monday and Wednesday nights at 9 pm.  Strange that the person showing me around at the place never mentioned this, but it's possible she didn't know since she was an employee, not one of the managers.

It would be great if they had a bar-style karaoke show every night of the week and just changed KJs to give some variety.  But I imagine they figure it would cut into their regular business.

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Reward: nine yen in drawer.

A large number of Asian clubs have moved to the "Private Room" deal for a number of reasons.. Some that would not be successful for the redneck audience..

(IMHO)

Several clubs like that are here in Hollywierd.. Full most nights, no engrish songs available..  :drunk:

It's all what the customer wants.. Peace out..  :wave:

Private Room Karaoke are for:

Private party away from home.
Hosting a karaoke party for business clients, away from the office or your home.
Family/relatives karaoke party away from home
All-females karaoke party ( Asian can Be shy people)
All males karaoke party (mostly VERY Bad but not so shy singers)
All males karaoke party with GRO ( this one I will go to )

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I can neither confirm nor deny ever having or knowing anything about nothing.... mrscott

I had only been to karaoke box style karaoke (that's what they call it in Japan) until a few years ago- I had actally never tried bars until recently! Asian style karaoke is very popular in Los Angeles, NY, Vancouver and San Francisco, and any other place with large urban Asian populations and I've noticed it's not just popular with Asians– definitely all sorts of folks go to the "Karaoke Box" in NY. A lot of people like to rent them out for private parties, work related events, and I've been to Karaoke Boxes with extensive English songbooks too, like Sing Sing in the East Village in New York City. Honestly, most of my Asian friends prefer karaoke boxes, while my white friends like karaoke bars– it must be some kind of cultural difference! but I heard there's a high end karaoke box in London, England called Lucky Voice that is not particularly Asian, but it's  fancy private room karaoke.

And I also don't believe the experience is any less inferior- you get your own room, don't have to share, and don't have to wait all night just to sing one song. It's for people who just like to sing, no matter who's looking (meaning people who don't care about attention!). My one friend Nick doesn't consider Asian style karaoke to be "real karaoke," and considers it "practice," which is a crock to me– hey, if it's singing, it's karaoke! Maybe you can say some Asian are shy to sing to strangers, but you can also say that they don't care to impress strangers either. To each his own. Anyway, if you live somewhere where the karoake bars get too crowded, karaoke boxes are a good alternative.

Private room karaoke is also becoming widely popular in cities– most weekend nights I go, I can't even book a room or have to wait hours! It's also an alternative for people who don't have karaoke systems at home, which are MOST people. Not everyone is as hardcore as us! Karaoke boxes are also a great way to test out songs you've never done before without fear of messing up in front of hordes of people.

There is a HUGE range of karaoke box places- like the one described above, high end ones like Lucky Voice, or mid range. Depends how much you want to pay. In NYC it can be up to $60 per hour for 4-6 people, in LA it's can be only $30/ hr. Some have room service where you can order drinks and food. Others supply tambourines. Some have tagolog, chinese, japanese, and korean songs, others only have english. Another note, I have to say EVERYONE in Asia sings in Karaoke Boxes/ Rooms, and karaoke bars are not as popular anymore. From China, phillippines, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan (at least in my experience). In China and Taiwan, there are neighborhoods with SKYSCRAPERS  devoted to Karaoke boxes (called KTV -- Karaoke Television in China). Skycrapers!

Anyway, I'm writing a book on karaoke culture and a how to, and I do some analysis between karaoke bars vs karaoke boxes (private rooms) and the pros + cons of each. Both appeal to a different kind of singer I guess. Again, to each his own.

Raina

PS. many of the karaoke box place have "Scoring" where the machine scores your voice. I think these are arbitrary, and I really wish karaoke boxes would just remove this feature!

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find me at /karaokedomination on myspace

The drama about this place never seems to end.

The same KJ who several days ago announced he was going to host bar-style karaoke at this place on Mondays and Wednesdays today sent out another e-mail saying the owner fired him because not many people showed up for the first night.  That was pretty dumb because they only had two days to get the word out that the show would even be there.  The KJ said it wouldn't have worked out anyway, though, because the owner didn't want the karaoke show to be so loud that it prevented normal conversation levels, but if he turned the sound down that much the music was drowned out by the music coming from the karaoke booths.

He also said the owner seemed to think that all the singers should be singing stuff like "Moon River."  If that's the case I'm not surprised it didn't work out.

Fortunately there's another new karaoke show in town that's on Mondays and Wednesdays that I haven't checked out yet, so I can still go to that.

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Reward: nine yen in drawer.