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It is strange to think of karaoke as an invention. The practice predates its facilitating devices， and the concept transcends its practice： Karaoke is the hobby of being a star； it is an adjuvant for the truest you an audience could handle.1
Karaoke does have a parent. In the late 1960s， Daisuke Inoue was working as a club keyboardist， accompanying drinkers who wanted to belt out2 a song. “Out of the 108 club musicians in Kobe， I was the worst，” he told Time. One client， the head of a steel company， asked Inoue to join him at a hot springs resort where he’d hoped to entertain business associates. Inoue declined， but instead recorded a backing tape tailored to the client’s erratic singing style.3 It was a success. Intuiting a demand， Inoue built a jukeboxlike device fitted with a car stereo and a microphone， and leased an initial batch to bars across the city in 1971.4 “I’m not an inventor，” he said in an interview. “I simply put things that already exist together， which is completely different.” He never patented the device （in 1983， a Filipino inventor named Roberto del Rosario acquired the patent for his own sing-along system） though years later he patented a solution to ward5 cockroaches and rats away from the wiring.
In 1999， Time named Inoue one of the “most influential Asians” of the last century； in 2004， he received the Ig Nobel prize， a semiserious Nobel-parody honor by true laureates at Harvard University.6 At the ceremony， Inoue ended his acceptance speech with a few bars of the Coke jingle “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing.”7 The crowd gave him a standing ovation， and four laureates serenaded him with “Can’t Take My Eyes off You” in the style of Andy Williams.8 “I was nominated as the inventor of karaoke， which teaches people to bear the awful singing of ordinary citizens， and enjoy it anyway，” Inoue wrote in an essay. “That is ‘genuine peace，’ they told me.”
Karaoke is a social medium， a vector for a unit of your sensibility， just as mediated as any other， although it demands different materials.9 Twitter calls for wit， Instagram for aesthetic，10 but karaoke is supposed to present your nudest self.
Globally， karaoke is customizable： You can sing for an audience， or you can rent a box with your friends； you can rent a karaoke stall like a photo booth， or buy a Magic Sing to perform with at home among family. In 2011， a karaoke chain called 1Kara opened its first location in Tokyo. It offers singing pods for one， like a driving range or a batting cage， complete with mixers and condenser mics.11“There is nothing to hold you back now！”the company’s website reads “You can truly lose yourself12 to the music.” Hobbies are a way to feel good about yourself in spite of your inadequacies. For the moment you rounded third， it didn’t matter that your breath smells chronically of wood rot，13 or that you never see your kids. Karaoke， however， makes a showcase of your inadequacies. Up there it’s just you and a backing track. No lighting scheme is going to make you look much better than you look. No mix is going to make you sound much better than you sound. A bad singer will try to forget the fact， but a better performer will work with it. Karaoke is a way of performing your shortcomings， which implies the hope of transfiguring them—flaws become eccentricities，14 which add up to character.
For most of us， singing is a private activity. It involves a volume of expression that is totally inappropriate in most areas of life， as well as bodily configurations reserved mostly for bedrooms and bathrooms.15 Karaoke is a way to be in public as you might be in private. It’s an easy way to be vulnerable， and to be comfortable with other people’s vulnerabilities， which is just as fulfilling：16 So much of the stress of being among others is of remaining kind and patient when they remind you of yourself. Karaoke is the spectacle of a compromised state.17 There are many compromised states. In one you might be squinting and yowling a song you can’t sing； in others you might be screaming at a friend， or sucker-punching a stranger.18 Just as a sad song offers melancholy in place of misery， karaoke makes hubris look cute.19
Every communicative medium has its drawbacks. Facebook can establish the community of your people—everyone you’ve ever met and want to stay in touch with—but it can produce a miasma20 of your past， and pin you to the person you used to be. Twitter is a great way to correct yourself， but a terrible place to be mistaken. Text messaging is a means of coexisting in solitude， but it can close a necessary distance. Living in public hasn’t eliminated the private self， but it has stratified levels of privacy， made more of the private exploitable.21 Karaoke presents as much naked you as most strangers could possibly enjoy； but it’s still mostly an add-on， something you mustn’t confuse with the you that requires permanent renovation.22 Whoever you are， you are worthy of attention and approval. May we remember what to keep to ourselves.
人們把卡拉OK当做新发明是种很奇怪的想法。这种活动早在辅助设备出现前就有，且其概念超越了实践：卡拉OK是种当明星的爱好，是一种辅助工作，好让观众能接受最真实的你。 卡拉OK之父确有其人。在20世纪60年代末，井上大佑作为键盘手在一家俱乐部工作，给来喝酒喝得想高歌一曲的客人伴奏。“在神户的108个乐手中，我是最差的一个。”他对《时代》杂志说。有个客人是一家钢铁公司的高层，请井上去一家温泉度假村给自己伴奏，因为他要在那里招待生意伙伴。井上没去，而是给这位五音不全的客人录制了一盘伴奏带，结果大受好评。井上感知到了这一需求，于是制作了一台类似点唱机的设备，配上车载音响和麦克风，并在1971年把首批产品租赁给全城的酒吧。“我不是发明家，”他在一次采访中说，“我只是把已经存在的东西拼了起来，这是完全不一样的。”他从未给这种设备申请过专利（1983年，一个叫罗伯托·德尔·罗萨里奥的菲律宾发明家因其发明的跟唱系统获得了专利），虽然在多年后他为一种保护电线不受蟑螂和老鼠损害的解决方案申请了专利。
1999年，井上被《时代》杂志评为上个世纪“最有影响力的亚洲人”之一；2004年，他获得了搞笑诺贝尔奖，一个半严肃性质、戏仿诺贝尔奖的荣誉奖项，而且是由哈佛大学里真正的诺奖得主颁发的。在颁奖典礼上，井上用可口可乐广告曲《我想教全世界歌唱》里的几段歌词结束他的获奖感言。全场观众起立为他鼓掌，四位诺贝尔奖得主用安迪·威廉姆斯的风格为他唱起了《我的眼里只有你》。“我作为卡拉OK的发明者获得提名，就是教人们去忍受普通民众糟糕的歌唱，同时尽情享受。”井上在一篇文章中写道，“他们告诉我，那是种真真切切的平和之心。”
卡拉OK是种社交媒介，是部分情感构成的载体，和其他形式一样带有中介性质，尽管需要不同的材料来实现。推特上需要智慧，Instagram上需要审美，而你在卡拉OK里应该展示最真实的自我。
全球范围内，卡拉OK是可以定制的。你可以给一群观众唱，或和朋友一起租个卡拉OK盒子；你可以租个照相亭一样的卡拉OK亭，或买个“魔唱机”回家跟家人一起表演。在2011年，一家叫“1Kara”的卡拉OK连锁机构在东京开了第一家店，提供单人的练歌间，像高尔夫或棒球的练习场，配备混音器和电容话筒。“现在再也没有什么能拖你后腿了！”公司网站宣称，“你可以真正沉浸在音乐中。”
所谓爱好就是一种让自己感觉良好的方法，尽管人人都有着种种不完美。当你唱完第三个回合，不管你的口气是否一直如朽木般难闻或再也见不到自己的孩子，这些都不再重要。然而，卡拉OK却是为了凸显你的不完美。在那儿，就只有你和伴奏曲。既没有灯光效果让你看起更好看，也没有混音让你听起来更动听。糟糕的歌者会尝试去忘记这些事实，但一个知趣的表演者会因势利导。卡拉OK是一种展示缺点的方式，同时隐含着美化缺点的愿望——于是瑕疵变成怪癖，以此平添个人特色。
对多数人而言，唱歌是私下的活动，涉及到一大通完全不适宜在绝大部分生活领域展现的表情，以及只有在浴室或卧室里才展示的身体动作。而卡拉OK能让你将私下的表现公开化。它能让你轻易地表露脆弱，也不会觉得他人的脆弱很别扭。这让人心满意足，因置身群体的压力大多来自当他人勾起了你对自身的感触时，你还要保持和蔼与耐心。卡拉OK公开体现了一种折中，其状态有很多种。有时，你可能在眯着眼睛玩命嘶吼一首你原本唱不了的歌；而有时，你可能又冲着一个朋友大喊大叫，或者突袭一个陌生人。正如一曲悲歌用忧郁代替痛苦，卡拉OK让自以为是者看起来活泼可爱。
每种沟通媒介都有自身的缺陷。脸书能为你建立人际圈子——所有你遇到并想保持联系的人——但也能产生一团叫做“过去”的负能量，把你钉在陈旧的自我之中。推特既是自我修正的绝佳途径，也是被误解而成人众矢之的的靶场。文字短信是保持孤立的同时与他人共存的办法，但也會拉近个体间必要的距离。公共生活并不能消除隐秘的自我，但能将私密性逐级分层，从而暴露更多的私密。卡拉OK最大程度地展现出了大多数陌生人可能乐于接受的个人袒露；但这最多也只是一种附属品，你不该错把那一刻的你当做那个需要持续更新的自己。不论你是谁，都值得关注和认可。让我们都谨记自己应有的坚守。
Karaoke does have a parent. In the late 1960s， Daisuke Inoue was working as a club keyboardist， accompanying drinkers who wanted to belt out2 a song. “Out of the 108 club musicians in Kobe， I was the worst，” he told Time. One client， the head of a steel company， asked Inoue to join him at a hot springs resort where he’d hoped to entertain business associates. Inoue declined， but instead recorded a backing tape tailored to the client’s erratic singing style.3 It was a success. Intuiting a demand， Inoue built a jukeboxlike device fitted with a car stereo and a microphone， and leased an initial batch to bars across the city in 1971.4 “I’m not an inventor，” he said in an interview. “I simply put things that already exist together， which is completely different.” He never patented the device （in 1983， a Filipino inventor named Roberto del Rosario acquired the patent for his own sing-along system） though years later he patented a solution to ward5 cockroaches and rats away from the wiring.
In 1999， Time named Inoue one of the “most influential Asians” of the last century； in 2004， he received the Ig Nobel prize， a semiserious Nobel-parody honor by true laureates at Harvard University.6 At the ceremony， Inoue ended his acceptance speech with a few bars of the Coke jingle “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing.”7 The crowd gave him a standing ovation， and four laureates serenaded him with “Can’t Take My Eyes off You” in the style of Andy Williams.8 “I was nominated as the inventor of karaoke， which teaches people to bear the awful singing of ordinary citizens， and enjoy it anyway，” Inoue wrote in an essay. “That is ‘genuine peace，’ they told me.”
Karaoke is a social medium， a vector for a unit of your sensibility， just as mediated as any other， although it demands different materials.9 Twitter calls for wit， Instagram for aesthetic，10 but karaoke is supposed to present your nudest self.
Globally， karaoke is customizable： You can sing for an audience， or you can rent a box with your friends； you can rent a karaoke stall like a photo booth， or buy a Magic Sing to perform with at home among family. In 2011， a karaoke chain called 1Kara opened its first location in Tokyo. It offers singing pods for one， like a driving range or a batting cage， complete with mixers and condenser mics.11“There is nothing to hold you back now！”the company’s website reads “You can truly lose yourself12 to the music.” Hobbies are a way to feel good about yourself in spite of your inadequacies. For the moment you rounded third， it didn’t matter that your breath smells chronically of wood rot，13 or that you never see your kids. Karaoke， however， makes a showcase of your inadequacies. Up there it’s just you and a backing track. No lighting scheme is going to make you look much better than you look. No mix is going to make you sound much better than you sound. A bad singer will try to forget the fact， but a better performer will work with it. Karaoke is a way of performing your shortcomings， which implies the hope of transfiguring them—flaws become eccentricities，14 which add up to character.
For most of us， singing is a private activity. It involves a volume of expression that is totally inappropriate in most areas of life， as well as bodily configurations reserved mostly for bedrooms and bathrooms.15 Karaoke is a way to be in public as you might be in private. It’s an easy way to be vulnerable， and to be comfortable with other people’s vulnerabilities， which is just as fulfilling：16 So much of the stress of being among others is of remaining kind and patient when they remind you of yourself. Karaoke is the spectacle of a compromised state.17 There are many compromised states. In one you might be squinting and yowling a song you can’t sing； in others you might be screaming at a friend， or sucker-punching a stranger.18 Just as a sad song offers melancholy in place of misery， karaoke makes hubris look cute.19
Every communicative medium has its drawbacks. Facebook can establish the community of your people—everyone you’ve ever met and want to stay in touch with—but it can produce a miasma20 of your past， and pin you to the person you used to be. Twitter is a great way to correct yourself， but a terrible place to be mistaken. Text messaging is a means of coexisting in solitude， but it can close a necessary distance. Living in public hasn’t eliminated the private self， but it has stratified levels of privacy， made more of the private exploitable.21 Karaoke presents as much naked you as most strangers could possibly enjoy； but it’s still mostly an add-on， something you mustn’t confuse with the you that requires permanent renovation.22 Whoever you are， you are worthy of attention and approval. May we remember what to keep to ourselves.
人們把卡拉OK当做新发明是种很奇怪的想法。这种活动早在辅助设备出现前就有，且其概念超越了实践：卡拉OK是种当明星的爱好，是一种辅助工作，好让观众能接受最真实的你。 卡拉OK之父确有其人。在20世纪60年代末，井上大佑作为键盘手在一家俱乐部工作，给来喝酒喝得想高歌一曲的客人伴奏。“在神户的108个乐手中，我是最差的一个。”他对《时代》杂志说。有个客人是一家钢铁公司的高层，请井上去一家温泉度假村给自己伴奏，因为他要在那里招待生意伙伴。井上没去，而是给这位五音不全的客人录制了一盘伴奏带，结果大受好评。井上感知到了这一需求，于是制作了一台类似点唱机的设备，配上车载音响和麦克风，并在1971年把首批产品租赁给全城的酒吧。“我不是发明家，”他在一次采访中说，“我只是把已经存在的东西拼了起来，这是完全不一样的。”他从未给这种设备申请过专利（1983年，一个叫罗伯托·德尔·罗萨里奥的菲律宾发明家因其发明的跟唱系统获得了专利），虽然在多年后他为一种保护电线不受蟑螂和老鼠损害的解决方案申请了专利。
1999年，井上被《时代》杂志评为上个世纪“最有影响力的亚洲人”之一；2004年，他获得了搞笑诺贝尔奖，一个半严肃性质、戏仿诺贝尔奖的荣誉奖项，而且是由哈佛大学里真正的诺奖得主颁发的。在颁奖典礼上，井上用可口可乐广告曲《我想教全世界歌唱》里的几段歌词结束他的获奖感言。全场观众起立为他鼓掌，四位诺贝尔奖得主用安迪·威廉姆斯的风格为他唱起了《我的眼里只有你》。“我作为卡拉OK的发明者获得提名，就是教人们去忍受普通民众糟糕的歌唱，同时尽情享受。”井上在一篇文章中写道，“他们告诉我，那是种真真切切的平和之心。”
卡拉OK是种社交媒介，是部分情感构成的载体，和其他形式一样带有中介性质，尽管需要不同的材料来实现。推特上需要智慧，Instagram上需要审美，而你在卡拉OK里应该展示最真实的自我。
全球范围内，卡拉OK是可以定制的。你可以给一群观众唱，或和朋友一起租个卡拉OK盒子；你可以租个照相亭一样的卡拉OK亭，或买个“魔唱机”回家跟家人一起表演。在2011年，一家叫“1Kara”的卡拉OK连锁机构在东京开了第一家店，提供单人的练歌间，像高尔夫或棒球的练习场，配备混音器和电容话筒。“现在再也没有什么能拖你后腿了！”公司网站宣称，“你可以真正沉浸在音乐中。”
所谓爱好就是一种让自己感觉良好的方法，尽管人人都有着种种不完美。当你唱完第三个回合，不管你的口气是否一直如朽木般难闻或再也见不到自己的孩子，这些都不再重要。然而，卡拉OK却是为了凸显你的不完美。在那儿，就只有你和伴奏曲。既没有灯光效果让你看起更好看，也没有混音让你听起来更动听。糟糕的歌者会尝试去忘记这些事实，但一个知趣的表演者会因势利导。卡拉OK是一种展示缺点的方式，同时隐含着美化缺点的愿望——于是瑕疵变成怪癖，以此平添个人特色。
对多数人而言，唱歌是私下的活动，涉及到一大通完全不适宜在绝大部分生活领域展现的表情，以及只有在浴室或卧室里才展示的身体动作。而卡拉OK能让你将私下的表现公开化。它能让你轻易地表露脆弱，也不会觉得他人的脆弱很别扭。这让人心满意足，因置身群体的压力大多来自当他人勾起了你对自身的感触时，你还要保持和蔼与耐心。卡拉OK公开体现了一种折中，其状态有很多种。有时，你可能在眯着眼睛玩命嘶吼一首你原本唱不了的歌；而有时，你可能又冲着一个朋友大喊大叫，或者突袭一个陌生人。正如一曲悲歌用忧郁代替痛苦，卡拉OK让自以为是者看起来活泼可爱。
每种沟通媒介都有自身的缺陷。脸书能为你建立人际圈子——所有你遇到并想保持联系的人——但也能产生一团叫做“过去”的负能量，把你钉在陈旧的自我之中。推特既是自我修正的绝佳途径，也是被误解而成人众矢之的的靶场。文字短信是保持孤立的同时与他人共存的办法，但也會拉近个体间必要的距离。公共生活并不能消除隐秘的自我，但能将私密性逐级分层，从而暴露更多的私密。卡拉OK最大程度地展现出了大多数陌生人可能乐于接受的个人袒露；但这最多也只是一种附属品，你不该错把那一刻的你当做那个需要持续更新的自己。不论你是谁，都值得关注和认可。让我们都谨记自己应有的坚守。