KARAOKE: CULTURE WITH A TWO DRINK MINIMUM
It is shortly after nine o'clock on a Saturday night. A burly, bearded man steps up to the microphone and begins singing the Hank Williams song, "Family Tradition." After the man sings the line, "Hank, why do you drink?" the audience responds: "To get drunk!" When he sings: "Hank, why do you smoke?" the crowd sings: "To get high!" Later, the exchange is repeated verbatim. When the song is over, the crowd applauds. The man walks away from the microphone and sits down at a table with his friends. Is he a professional singer? Hardly. Is it amateur night at a country bar? Not quite. It is karaoke night.
The karaoke bar is a culture unto itself: participatory, eclectic, convivial, habitual, and liberating. There is singing, drinking, camaraderie, and wish-fulfillment. Karaoke gives everyone a chance to be the star, if only for a night, if only for one song. Karaoke, which involves singing to a soundtrack in front of a live audience, has become a part of the culture of American bars in the 1990s, in much the same way as the "Urban Cowboy" phenomenon did in the 1980s, and thus is worthy of research.
During the "Urban Cowboy" phenomenon, which was inspired by the movie of the same name, people dressed in western clothing and went to popular bars or night spots to ride mechanical bulls and dance the two-step. In doing so, these bars or night spots were transformed into distinct cultures with their own set of routines, their own roles, and their own rhetoric. Janice Rushing described the rhetoric of the "Urban Cowboy" phenomenon as "participatory rhetoric": the audience was not separate from the source or message. Playing the part of a cowboy, she said, was a way for adults to escape and have a good time. Devotees became a part of the entertainment by playing a part in the entertainment. People who go to karaoke bars do so for much the same reason. They not only want to be entertained, they want to be part of the entertainment.
KARAOKE: CULTURE WITH A TWO DRINK MINIMUM
