Karaoke And The Fall Of Civilization As We Know It

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I hate Karaoke and its impact on pubs and popular culture. I have taken part in a few karaoke nights, and it is fun in small doses, but only if not taken seriously. I can’t sing, and I often purposely choose outrageous loud songs to murder, parody and mess about with. I’ve done The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown’s Fire! Jasper Carrott’s Funky Moped and Sinatra’s My Way in the style of Sid Viscous. What I generally see is people taking karaoke terribly seriously, fighting for control of their favorite songs and treating a three-minute pub-fun spot as if it was an audition for The X-Factor or a similar talent show. Such shows are in effect televised karaoke without the bouncing ball on screen to spell out the words. Too many such shows concentrate on soul-less cover versions. Many people auditioning for the shows will have heard friends saying ‘that was good – you should go on TV’ and taking the inane compliment way too seriously. Many pubs have a karaoke night that goes well and then decide to introduce it as a regular feature, at which point the novelty wears off in endless repetition and friends fall out in competition with one another, even if no prizes are at stake. Some pubs try to introduce Karaoke on quiet nights, only to end up making them even quieter. Karaoke isn’t a long-term entertainment – it’s an occasional novelty and amusement that overstays its welcome. I have really come to despise it. Here is the real Crazy World Of Arthur Brown (The crazy World of) Arthur Chappell