HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

A is a type of
karaoke Karaoke (; ; , clipped compound of Japanese ''kara'' "empty" and ''ōkesutora'' "orchestra") is a type of interactive entertainment usually offered in clubs and bars, where people sing along to recorded music using a microphone. The music i ...
establishment commonly found in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the United States and Canada. It originated in Japan, and is now popular worldwide, particularly in Asia. Karaoke boxes consist of multiple rooms containing karaoke equipment, usually rented out for a period of time. A typical karaoke box establishment contains 10–20 (or more) such rooms, that can be themed so that each room has a different feeling or can be a traditional karaoke box, as well as have a main karaoke
bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...
area in the front. Karaoke box establishments often sell beverages, and sometimes food but sometimes the establishment offers free refreshments. Many people of all ages enjoy karaoke as a pastime in Japan, as it still has a huge influence in the Japanese music scene and it is also a place that can attract tourists as well. One blogger, who is a fan of karaoke, writes "...to sing karaoke is to embrace the moment that your love of song transcends your love of self." While people do go to and enjoy karaoke boxes with family and friends, people also go by themselves and are able to enjoy the comfort of performing in the room by themselves. There is also a different style of karaoke, the traditional type where the patrons sing in front of everyone that is also still offered in popular entertainment areas, rather than the private boxes. A new trend of karaoke booth have shown up in Chinese shopping malls where customers can enter a booth, similar to a photo-booth, that allows them to perform different songs. The booths are cheaper than the traditional karaoke box, as they do not have to rent a room but just go in and sing a number of songs. The booths are very similar to the karaoke boxes but on a more intimate scale, with at least 20,000 booths running with an estimated 3.18 billion yuan in the 2017. The booths have an air conditioner, seats for the customers, the karaoke equipment, and headsets. Another trend that has popped up recently, as Itochu Corp., which has its usually services in karaoke boxes has recently began offering their boxes for daytime meetings for business who need a cheap business room, as their starting price start at about $10.00 an hour. There has also been conversation about fire safety with karaoke boxes after an arson in Hong Kong which led to public concern about their safety. There has been research where they recreated an establishment with 3 boxes and a corridor, in a remote location in China, which was designed with the intention of testing a real-time fire in a karaoke establishment. There has also been additional research about karaoke boxes as to ensure the safety of the customers in evacuation research about widening the length of hallways. The term karaoke box is primarily used in
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
,
Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...
and
Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...
. Karaoke box establishments are commonly known as KTV (an abbreviation of karaoke television) in
Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
,
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
,
Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand t ...
,
Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...
,
Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
, the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
and
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
, ''videoke'' in the
Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...
, ''noraebang'' (노래방) in
South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
(literally meaning singing room), ''hwamyŏn panju ŭmaksil'' (화면반주음악실) in
North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...
, ''karaoke room'' in
Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
, and ''karaoke club'' in
Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
. It is also common to simply abbreviate it as K in
Hong Kong Cantonese Hong Kong Cantonese is a dialect of the Cantonese language of the Sino-Tibetan family. Although Hongkongers refer to the language as "''Cantonese''" (), publications in mainland China describe the variant as ''Hong Kong dialect'' (), due t ...
, often when used as a verb, for example 去K歌 (to go K songs) or 去唱K (to go sing K). File:Karaoke-Big echo-P5262150.jpg, Lobby of a karaoke box in Japan File:Karaoke-Harbin6303733.jpg, Entrance to a karaoke box in
Harbin Harbin (; mnc, , v=Halbin; ) is a sub-provincial city and the provincial capital and the largest city of Heilongjiang province, People's Republic of China, as well as the second largest city by urban population after Shenyang and largest ...
, China File:Asemakatu 31-33 Oulu 20101024.JPG, Entrance to the
Best Western Best Western International, Inc. owns the Best Western Hotels & Resorts brand, which it licenses to over 4,700 hotels worldwide. The franchise, with its corporate headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona, includes more than 2,000 hotels in North America. ...
Hotel Apollo and Karaoke Bar in
Oulu Oulu ( , ; sv, Uleåborg ) is a city, municipality and a seaside resort of about 210,000 inhabitants in the region of North Ostrobothnia, Finland. It is the most populous city in northern Finland and the fifth most populous in the country after: ...
, Finland File:Karaoke Khan.jpg, A karaoke box in a skyscraper in
Shinjuku is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. It is a major commercial and administrative centre, housing the northern half of the busiest railway station in the world (Shinjuku Station) and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, the administration ...
, Tokyo, featured in the movie '' Lost in Translation''.


Legal issues

KTV can also refer to a karaoke music video, a music video with karaoke lyrics and MMO audio track. Some karaoke music videos were sold to KTV establishments under exclusivity contracts, making some people use them to copy karaoke music videos illegally and share them on the Internet. These are often found on the Internet in
MPEG The Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) is an alliance of working groups established jointly by International Organization for Standardization, ISO and International Electrotechnical Commission, IEC that sets standards for media coding, includ ...
(
VCD Video CD (abbreviated as VCD, and also known as Compact Disc Digital Video) is a home video format and the first format for distributing films on standard optical discs. The format was widely adopted in Southeast Asia, Central Asia and the ...
) or VOB (
DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
) format with (KTV) appended to the filename.


References


External links

{{commons category, Karaoke lounges
At the Mic: Karaoke Television
by Mia Dick, ''Compass Magazine'', April–May 1998, retrieved 5 November 2006.
Karaoke Players Info:
More about the usage of karaoke around the world. Karaoke Japanese popular culture Cambodian culture Chinese culture Cantonese culture Culture of Hong Kong Culture of Macau Singaporean culture Malaysian culture Indonesian culture Philippine popular culture South Korean popular culture Sri Lankan culture Taiwanese culture Thai culture Vietnamese culture