A few things I have observed about karaoke:

1) Karaoke/Videoke in the Philippines (I live there... erm, here) has become a general pastime for Filipinos. If I remember it right it became popular about 5-7 years ago. It really doesn't have a fixed target market, since almost everyone enjoys it, though the generation differences are obvious by the choices of songs they make. Karaoke is available almost everywhere: bars, malls, street cafeterias, even at home.

2) As I observed in mangas and animes, Japan also engages in karaoke activities. It maybe just by instance, but most that I observe who participate in karaoke are in the teens to young adults for purposes of socialization, whether it be friendly bonding or romantic endeavors. This speculations, of course, can be wrong since I am only an outside observer and have not been in Japan.

Generally I want to know who are those that also engage in karaoke, mainly to determine its frequency in other countries. So if you could also post which country you're from it'll be greatly appreciated.

Also I specifically would like to confirm the purpose of karaoke in Japan. So if anyone here is from Japan I would be grateful if you can give me some information on that one.

I thought that by the way I said the things above it might look like a thesis/study. But then this is just my curiosity

there is no karaoke in my town so i don't go. but i went in hungary twice and i liked it very much, it was a lot of fun

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whatever

I've done Karaoke in Japan and enjoyed the hell out of it. I would never doing in the US though. In the US it is mainly setup in bars on a stage, therefore extreme public embarrassment if you mess up. In Japan on the other hand the have booths where you can go alone or with small groups or even large parties of 20+ so it's a completely different beast.

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~~ HELL NO ~~

I wouldn't sing karaoke in front of a crowd of deaf & mute people that have had their eyes poked out.

It's not that I hate or despise Karaoke; It's just that I've practicly never done it.
As the above comment says; Karaoke in my culture is usualy done only in front of a very large crowd in public places.
Not to mention my "singing voice's" only ability is to shatter glass & embarrass myself while torturing others.

I've done a more private Karaoke with friends too though. But we ended up really drunk waaaaaaaaaaaay too fast. Nobody wants to pick up the microphone to sing and to 'avoid' the person searching for a new singer, you go get a beer. By the time you get back you notice the new song is nearly finished as well ~ so you prepare for another beer

No.
I know people can have fun doing it, but it seems really stupid and embarassing to me.
Thank god it's not popular in my country.

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Still the bad cop.

Nope, ive never seen karaoke places in the USA, generally if u like pop culture in the US, u go clubbing, drinking and hooking up.

I bet that if I give you tequila you'll do the karaoke. Not publicly, of course. For that we'd need Teleport and retro goths

But, no, I haven't done karaoke. It's somewhat popular here in Ireland, but I never allowed my friends to convince me to go.

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Current avatar features Badou from Dogs.

Not gonna happen I got immune to both tequila and retro goths
( the image of a blond guy in black lacy dress is still haunting my dreams ).

Sober=not singing. Drunk=not singing. End of story

You could go for some karaoke though...

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Still the bad cop.

well i didn't mention that i didn't sing alone , we were 10 at 2 microphones so that wasn't so embarrassing

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It was popular there even before 5-7 years ago. I love it and I hate it. I can't sing and everyone forces you to! But it's really fun, especially when there's a pool party <3

I still don't sing.

Not a chance in hell~

I love singing but I don't have a good voice & my range sucks, therefore outside my own house I only sing as part of a large group (in church, choir in HS & college, etc.).

The only karaoke I've heard of in my area (Idaho, USA) is, as others have said, set up in bars & people get up on stage to do it.

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"[English] not only borrows words from other languages; it has on occasion chased other languages down dark alley-ways, clubbed them unconscious and rifled their pockets for new vocabulary."
-James Nicoll, can.general, March 21, 1992

Sadly, there aren't any karaoke bars in Switzerland.
So I don't go to karaoke bars.
But we have a karaoke machine at home,
so everytime the relatives come, we use it.
But it's not like sing star or so, we bought it in vietnam,
so it's really asian karaoke.

Yay, and I really like it ^^

Yea...i went 2 days ago and i'm going 2morrow...lol

hahahaha well i'm filipino living in california. All of my uncles have their own karaokes. They gather every friday thru sunday, drink beer and karaoke. That's all they do. And they just sing the same damn song over and over again. It gets really annoying then funny. Well i did once or twice for the hell of it. I guess it is a filipino pastime. Well now i sing in my new Rock Band game. Nothing ashamed of playing the guitar and singing at the same time. I also do it on the drums when others don't know the song.

I use to like it. However I was some how talked into going to a 24 hour drunk Karaoke tournament. Lets just say it did not go so well. I can't stand Karaoke anymore and the place the competition was held still hasn't gotten back it's alcohol license.