Going down a bumpy hillside in your hippie hat

It's easy to forget sometimes that the karaoke is probably technically crushingly unhip. In the office, we have many thoughts about the karaoke: with a Music Critic head on, it's a great barometer for the shelf-life of songs liked by people who don't care Quite So Absurdly about music (Simon Cowell claims that field trips to karaoke pubs was his research tool for what Robson & Jerome should be trying). It's also a refreshingly anarchic world, the karaoke, where The B-52s jostle with Celine Dion and everyone's up for grabs. Plus we all, you know, like the karaoke.

So you forget that people who like The Fall and Lucinda Williams and Zappa aren't really supposed to "do" the karaoke. Until you're reminded by NME that karaoke is "one of music's seven deadly sins" and that Lost in translation has helped it gain "cool points by the hour". Sheesh.

The thing is, people do do the karaoke, and there's nothing especially funny or remarkable about Punk Rock Karaoke (though it does look damn fun), and the loveliness of Lost in translation and the "incongruity" of Stellastarr* singing "Careless whisper" doesn't change a thing or matter a hoot.

To be fully frank, I'm just cross because the article looked like it might be about to provide some useful material for my list of Karaoke Hazards.

Article Author: Alan Connor

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