Remember Disney’s first installment of High School Musical in 2006? One of the beginning scenes was a party, with two teens shoved on stage to do a duet. It was the first time they met and that singing act began the whole High School Musical saga. The teens happened to be the now ultra-famous characters Troy Bolton and Gabriella Montes. And you have to take notice of that thing that introduced the two—karaoke of course!
Recently, I saw an interview with some of the cast for High School Musical 3, and I heard Zac Ephron say that his dad has friends in the Philippines, and it’s so popular for karaoke. His dad comes back and forth for vacations, and those vacations always include karaoke fun. Yes, karaoke is one supreme form of entertainment. It is so popular that you can see the whole karaoke vogue here and there in different movies and on tv.
I saw a list in Wikipedia of karaoke depicted in a variety of movies and television shows. You might probably know some in the list.
· Films:
o 1989 film Black Rain
o 1996 comedy The Cable Guy
o 1997 romantic comedy My Best Friend’s Wedding
o 1997 Korean gangster comedy No. 3
o Karaoke is central to the 2000 movie Duets, which features a father and daughter competing in karaoke contests
o In the 2001 film Jackpot, an aspiring singer tours karaoke bars hoping to catch his big break as a country star
o 2001 film Rush Hour 2 includes a karaoke performance by Chris Tucker, where he upstages a tone-deaf local in Hong Kong by singing Michael Jackson’s “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough”
o 2003 film Lost in Translation
o Karaoke is the central theme of The Karaoke King, a 2006 independent film
· Television shows:
o American television show Desperate Housewives
o Several episodes of American television series Angel feature the demonic karaoke bar Caritas, whose proprietor Lorne (Andy Hallett) can tell fortunes based on the songs he hears. Some of the episodes include “That Old Gang of Mine” (episode 3 of season 3) and “Offspring” (episode 7 of season 3).
o Bones, a forensics and police procedural in which each episode focuses on an FBI case file concerning the mystery behind human remains brought by FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth to the forensic anthropology team of Dr. Temperance “Bones” Brennan. Karaoke was part of the cast in one of its episode, “Wannabe in the Weeds.”
o Two Pints of Lager & A packet of Crisps featured Donna singing “Chick Chick Chicken”, which was made for the BBC by Zoom Entertainments, a karaoke producer based in Hull, UK.
You yourself might be thinking now of more episodes in tv series or scenes in movies with karaoke in it. Karaoke is just so widespread!