Karaoke S&M
A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I had a week-long stretch of late-night karaoke singing sessions. Off-key, out-of-tune and out-of-range, we belted out cheesy ballads and disco tunes with gusto. We were using one of those newfangled karaoke machines that score your singing from a scale of 1 to 100. My wife and I had this thing figured out. Just as long as we enunciate every lyric displayed on the screen for the entirety of the song, no matter how awful our singing, we would get a fairly high score, like somewhere in the high 90s. So, happily we carried on.
American Idol should have killed off karaoke singing. The embarrassing parade of delusional singers featured on the show should’ve served as a dawning realization to many that not everyone can sing, including themselves. But no, just like my wife and I, many continue to sing to their heart’s content. I doubt that even creating such a thing as a “Simon Cowell” edition of a karaoke machine would put a stop to bad singers. A “Simon Cowell” machine, of course, would spit out trademark Cowell insults, such as “That was ghastly!” or “Horrendous!” after it accurately indentifies bad singing. Heck, knowing people, it just might become a hit. Bloody masochists!
Related topic: Top 25 Songs That Should Be Banned from Karaoke
Update: Hey, this past Sunday’s Chronicle Datebook does a cover story on Karaoke!
Tags: americanidol, karaoke, music
July 24th, 2004 at 9:54 pm
Well the first few episodes of the season are always the ones that induce the most interest because of the ones they let through with no talent (or semblance thereof). You have to wonder, who are these people and do their friends and family not care enough to be honest with them?
July 26th, 2004 at 10:42 am
That’s true, my interest in the show somehow wanes right before the truly talented start competing.