Karaoke: Zwischen Kulturtechnik, kommunikativem Format und dramaturgischer Praxis: Am Beispiel der Karaoke-Szenen im Film

Karaoke singing is a cultural phenomenon that became popular in highly developed capitalist societies in the 1970s. It establishes a frame of musical acting in the public sphere of leisure, and produces a collective immediacy and conviviality in live audiences while highlighting the subjective disposition of the singer. Karaokists not only try to imitate their chosen performer; they often generate an obvious asthetic distance to the recorded song through the use of exaggeration, overacting, and substandard vocals, thereby exploiting the music as a vehicle for their own subjective expression. Analyses of numerous karaoke scenes from films seek to expose the correlation between song, showmanship, personalized projection, and self-representation.