KTV 8/30/12

Karaoke TV.  KTV.  A large group of us went to a KTV joint to celebrate after the last day of training.  I wasn’t sure what to expect before going because I’m not particularly fond of karaoke but it turned out to be an awesome night.  We arrived at the place (maybe 15 of us) and paid up front for two hours.  We were led down a long corridor lined with doors, with more corridors branching off in different directions.  As we walked you could hear the bass from all the different songs in all the different rooms and at times it was possible to hear a person singing along to whatever track was playing.  As we walked down these corridors lined with rooms with their closed doors, Christen remarked that it “reminds her of a brothel.”  I don’t think she was too far off the mark with that observation.

After we made it to our private room, complete with three TV’s, a large U-shaped couch, and a long table, we started adding songs to the queue and people began to sing.  An attendant came by fairly quickly and took our drink order.  The drinks arrived quickly and people began to loosen up.  By the end of the night our little karaoke room turned into a private party, with everybody singing together and dancing and having a great time.  People that said that they “don’t do karaoke” were singing more than anyone, and people that “don’t dance” were shaking their moneymaker like there was no tomorrow. 

The KTV experience was great.  The private rooms allow everyone to be at ease unlike the karaoke bars that we have in the US.  At bars in the States it seems like there are usually only a handful of “karaoke pros” that sing most of the songs at bars.  They hog the playlist and think that they are performing on some big time stage.  It tends to be oddly enough, very exclusive, despite there typically being a much larger pool of candidates to sing when you are at a bar.  Being only in the company of those you know really makes the karaoke experience more inclusive and fun for everybody and every personality type.  The comfort level is much higher and more people are able to get involved.  All in all, a very cool experience.