Music, Karaoke and Songs to Sing

Karaoke terms

Jūhachiban

(十八番. also ohako). Many karaoke singers have one song which they are especially good at and which they use to show off their singing abilities. In Japan, this is called jūhachibanin reference to Kabuki Jūhachiban, the 18 best kabuki plays.

Karamovie or Movioke

Karaoke using scenes from movies. Amateur actors replace their favorite movie stars in popular movies. Usually facilitated by software or remote control muting and screen blanking/freezing. Karamovie originated in 2003.

Karaoke jockey or KJ

A karaoke jockey plays and manages the music for a venue. The role of the KJ often includes announcing song titles and whose turn it is to use the microphone.

A common myth about the etymology of the word “karaoke” claims that the word means “tone deaf” in Japanese. This is not true.

Hitokara

Singing karaoke alone is called hitokara (ヒトカラ, ヒト hito, “one person” or “alone” and カラ kara, “karaoke”) in Japan. Recently this trend has become very popular amongst amateur singers in Japan, also India and China.