KTV

...or the better version of Karaoke.

Most of us are familiar with Karaoke, there is a bar and a stage. One or two people get up and sing along with a screen telling them the lyrics to a song. Often people either hate or love Karaoke bars. KTV has a microphone that is sung into whilst reading highlighted lyrics off of a screen, but it is also so much more. I was introduced to KTV in Shenyang and blown away by how different it was from Karaoke bars in the States. First of all, you are in your own room.

"Partyworld" KTV room in Shanghai, and Ben

Rooms vary in size depending on how many people you have but the one in the picture was a  "small" one in Shanghai. As you can see the rooms are really nice with comfortable couches and fun decor. This way you don't have to worry about singing to an entire bar full of people, it's just you and the others in the room.

Second, the screen is not some 13" old television with a plain blue background and lyrics. Instead, they are nice quality flat screens with music videos*. 

Another view of the room, and Ben

*The music videos vary in what exactly is on the screen. I am not sure how they get the music or what they pay for it. I am sure it costs more to have the actual music video for the song being sung rather than a random video, or at least I hope that is their excuse. For example, "I Love the Way You Lie" by Eminem ft. Rihanna (yes, I love this song, don't hate just cuz you like Arcadia Fire - this link has explicit content like Eminem's music) had the actual video with Dominic Monaghan and Megan Fox kicking the crap out of each other, along with the real audio. Sometimes you aren't as lucky, like with "All The Small Things" by Blink 182 which was accompanied by an early 90s video of random things including a huge commercial tractor plowing a field. My favorite was "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana with another early 90s video of a woman walking around the Garden Cafe and shots of a crystal duck. What was significantly more annoying then the videos in no way matching the songs was when the background music was a recreation with a Casio 5000 keyboard. It had the habit of ruining them a bit, but thankfully this wasn't for the majority of songs.

The touch screen control

If you ignore the fact that everything is in Chinese, you see how awesome these controls are. It is a touch screen controller in which you can change the sound of the song (volume, speed, pitch), search and view songs, restart the song, pause the song, turn off the recorded vocals, etc. Granted because it was in Chinese it took us a lot of trial and error to figure out what everything did, but when we got there it was highly appreciated.

It is relatively cheap to go to KTV, though Karaoke bars are usually free. For the room we had,  it was ¥138 for 5 hours, roughly $21. Granted we went on a Monday afternoon, not the busiest time, though there were others there. Each person is also required to buy a drink, their mango slush was delicious and cooled my vocal cords. When we first got the reservation for 5 hours, we never thought we would stay for the whole time, but it went by pretty quickly and we were having a good time. Downside, Ben has a pretty good singing voice and I try to tell myself that my voice has gotten better over the years, but do you know what is worse than listening to mediocre singers magnified over a sound system ruining your favorite songs, that's right mediocre singers tired, scratchy voices from singing for 5 hours  magnified over a sound system. We were cracking each other up by the end, it was horribly epic.

The blue and red colored foam covers are disposible, yay hygiene.

When I went in Shenyang, I went with the group of Chinese medical students I had got to know. Though I was becoming friends with them, I wasn't super close to them and they all had really great voices. So, I felt a bit self-conscious at the KTV and didn't sing that many songs. This time it was just Ben and I, so I made a complete fool of myself. I had a lot of fun and it really makes me wish that KTV-style Karaoke was available in our part of the country.

If you have the chance definitely check out a KTV, just be careful if you are in Southeast Asia, especially The Philippines,  and like to sing Frank Sinatra: "The authorities do not know exactly how many people have been killed warbling “My Way” in karaoke bars over the years in the Philippines, or how many fatal fights it has fueled. But the news media have recorded at least half a dozen victims in the past decade and includes them in a subcategory of crime dubbed the 'My Way Killings.'" The entire article is here, quite an interesting cultural phenomenon.