Our Cheese: Taking Back The Karaoke Video

By Raina Lee

When you mention karaoke, the first thing that comes to mind is not just the singing and the drunkenness. It’s the ghastly reaction to the visuals. The karaoke video: the D-list actors, the sepia-toned interpretive dance, the overdramatic storylines of a romance, fight, and reconciliation. If it's even more cheaply made: Asian girls strolling along a coastline while holding hands, a practice not at all interpreted as lesbian in Asia.

But like a Balenciaga bag from Canal Street, karaoke videos are considered the epitome of poor production and bad taste—a cheap, Asian knock-off. Since the videos are made to stand in for the real thing, the “Bust a Move” video featuring a Young-MC-inspired cast is replaced by a b-girl in biker shorts and graffiti artist pretending to tag. Instead of it looking badass, imagine if your Chinese mom had cast it. It’s a completely different animal than the original music video. The videos inhabit a limbo that I’d imagine looks like the set of an Information Society video—not quiet a music video, not quiet video art. The karaoke video is an art form in it’s own right, albeit one no one wants to claim.

Until…now.

A little background on how the videos came into being:
Kurt Slep, president of Sound Choice, the largest karaoke music producer in the country, says It’s the Asian companies who produced those song videos. European and American companies chose not to, electing to focus on the music instead—no video, no pictures, just lyrics. His explanation is simple. Americans grew up with elaborate MTV-style videos, and “anything less ends up looking like…videos from karaoke songs.”

And the reason the videos don’t match the lyrics is because publishers of the original music won’t allow songs to be storyboarded (aka matching the videos with the lyrics content). Thus, videos are the result of hodgepodge stock footage not intended for any particular song. Which explains why the video for “La Isla Bonita” features a chilly tundra. Which is not the setting for a Spanish lullaby.

Awkward, anachronistic, the karaoke video is the perfect metaphor for the Asian America experience. It’s about having source material from one place that’s meant to work in another. It’s the makeshift; like in the production of the video themselves; it’s like having song lyrics that don’t ever match the footage you’re given, so you have to make it up along the way.

Take back karaoke at M.A.T.H. Club’s Karaoke Happy Hour@Izakaya Izu with Raina Lee and the release of her new book, Hit Me With Your Best Shot: The Ultimate Guide to Karaoke Domination, published by Chronicle Books.

Raina Lee publishes 1-Up MegaZine, an obsessive video game culture zine. This is her first book. Raina will also moderate the New Landscapes panel Extra Lives: Intersections of Video Games and Film.