September 26, 2024 • 34 mins
As the karaoke phenomenon became a global pastime, it likewise transformed to adapt to cultures outside of Japan. In the second part of this two-part series, Ben, Noel and Max explore the expansion of karaoke as both technology and culture as well as the troubling ethical nature of AI, arriving their own interpretations along the way.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
(00:27):
the show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so much
for tuning in. There's our handsome devil of a super producer,
mister Max Williams.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Look at that man? Who's that man?
Speaker 1 (00:40):
If you're wondering, I am still technically alive here on Thursday. Okay,
all right, all right, so we're gonna get We're gonna
get this done before Max does pass from this place. Yeah,
he's a perishable quantity. You are Noel Brown, I am
Ben Bowling, and we are in media arrests would be
the fancy way to say it. Well, we're halfway through
(01:03):
an exploration of something that I think means a lot
to a lot of people.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Absolutely, and it should because it is such a fun
thing to do, to sing badly or goodly if that's
a word, with your close personal friends, or with strangers,
whatever floats your boat. And we're going to get into
all of those options in this second part of the
carry ok episode.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
In Oi does get paid for in part of my pronunciation,
he does get paid for bringing this tape along, and
he gets paid the same as you would if you
were a touring percussionist. And this is where they get
the term carry okay translates from cara, which means empty
(01:56):
plus okay, which means orchestra. So empty orchestra.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Oh, it's so fascinating because it almost sounds like a
diss in a way, but it.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Just kind of means, like, you know, orchestra without people.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
And this is really more a term used for the
concept of like singing along with these types of backing
accompaniment tracks. I don't know that they were necessarily referring
to it certainly wasn't branded as such, but the Juke
eight was the Juke eight. It wasn't the carryoke machine
or carryoke, So I believe the term was really more
(02:32):
referring to kind of the culture surrounding it. But just
to add a little bit of detail around the juke
ate what made it different from the Sparko Box.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
It did involve that eight track player.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
He actually pulled it for the prototype from a car stereo,
combined it with a microphone and amplifier, just like the
Sparko Box, but like I was talking about at the top,
added a reverb box, which in those days would have
been like a spring with a kind of contact microphone
attached to either end, So when the sound of the
(03:01):
microphone goes into that box with the spring, the spring
reverberates and the echo sound is then passed back into
the mixer, so you hear it as kind of like
an echo, super super interesting. You'll see it in like
guitar amplifiers and things of the time. But this also
the juke eight had a coin slot. This was a
coin operated machine, and the eight track tapes that were
(03:23):
used would have been loaded with like a lot of
the most requested songs of between nineteen sixty nine and
nineteen seventy and on. But what really created the phenomenon
that would go on to be karaoke was again that
democratization of being able to express oneself musically, no matter
whether you're a good singer or not, and for all
(03:45):
intents and purposes, for that one shining moment or evening
to become a superstar, to kind of become a lead
singer of a band, being able to sort of stand
in for your favorite artist.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Here's what I love about karaoke as a phenomenon and
as indeed a cultural event. The number one fear, as
I said earlier, for a lot of people is public speaking,
and oftentimes most people feel that they are not heard
(04:17):
right and they feel like everybody else is continually focused
on themselves, which is unfortunately often true when I show
up to these places. I'm there in a public event,
like in a Western version, because I like clapping, I
like supporting people. I'm also very good at clapping.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
So this is.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
This is a gift, yes with both hands. So that's
like you know, two different people at this point. But
this hits again, as I said earlier, a universal appeal.
It helps people learn about themselves, and I would say
it helps people support each other. Now, sing alongs in
(05:05):
some version, as the research Earli or established, have existed
across civilizations. They were a way of encoding history for
quite some time. But now we're in the era of capitalism. Right,
people have to make money. They have a profit motive,
and this maybe max if we could get a bit
(05:27):
of a sad music, not a wompwomp, but just like
a bittersweet thing. H perfect and know we Unfortunately, like Nigishi,
made almost no money from his innovation, but larger companies
(05:47):
were listening.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
The streets were watching.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Oh yeah, the streets were a buzz all at Twitter.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
He only owned a single patent for.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
A time relating to karaoke, which would have been these
like binders, kind of these plastic covered song books, which,
based on our discussions Ben and Max of patents, that's
not particularly novel or unique, Like I'm kind of intrigued
as to how one could patent a bound plastic book
(06:21):
of songs.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
It was a different time.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
I guess it was a different time.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
The funniest thing though, is I don't know that there
was a patent for this, but he did make some
money from kind of I guess a pesticide that he created.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Yeah, he became an ad guy. He became an ass
scene on TV kind of dude, like, hey, you know
me from earlier. I love two things, you know, singing
with other people's music and killing vermin And that's that's
what he was marketing. Like the way they framed it was,
(06:58):
I have created the carry okay box, and I'm super
mad at roaches and rats because they mess with the wires. Yeah,
the the vermin or the natural enemy of the carryok
And then he gets to he gets to this increasingly
(07:21):
this is weird because it's more modern culture thing. But
he gets to this increasingly halcyon position of niche celebrity.
A television channel based out of Singapore finds him and
platforms him in nineteen ninety six, which has just past
(07:41):
the cutoff of Ridiculous History, and he is now now
he's on this TV channel. And guys, if you haven't
seen if you haven't seen TV in Singapore, you must
go to YouTube. I'm sure you can find it somewhere.
This channel was all Krarryok. It was all people doing karaoke,
(08:07):
often in costume as Western icons of old.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
One hundred percent. And I love that you mentioned Ben,
that he was sort of rediscovered. I guess in nineteen
ninety six, well after karaoke had been fully established as
a phenomenon, you know, a cultural kind of thing. And
in this piece for Time Asia, the writer interviews in
Oa and he gives this delightful quote of his legacy.
(08:35):
I guess we're pretending to karaoke. He says, I am
its natural parent, but having given birth to Carryok, I
abandoned it.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
And here in the Ridiculous History cinematic universe picture a
zoom out, a nice fade, we settle upon the escape
of Japan, not Tokyo, you know, not Osaka, not necessarily Kyoto,
just a smaller town where you have folks getting together
(09:10):
for little parties. On the weekend, someone gets married, there's
another social event, and what do they do when they
all hang out? They try to enjoy something together. And
that is where Carrie Okay finds its first modern audience,
because you know, people again, public speaking being a very
(09:35):
real fear for a lot of folks. You've got like imagine,
you know, you're the you're the father of the bride,
you're the father of the groom or whatever. And one
time when your kid, who is now an adult, one
time when that kid was six years old, you did
an absolutely bonkers version of the bird is the word.
(09:57):
And now it's now you have to do it in
front of your old and your new family. So there's
this accessibility, there's a I would say, there is a
unifying affection involved, and so there is with this in mind,
there is no surprise that Annoy's idea or multiple people's
(10:22):
ideas spread throughout Japan and then across the world because
it's a fun thing. Like imagine, you know, in the
days before social media and streaming video and God saved
me for saying it. Before podcast people would hang out
and try to figure out fun stuff to do with
(10:43):
each other, like playing cards and carry okay, fulfills that need.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
Oh man, Ben, you brought Matt Frederick and I am
att our co host on that stuff that I want
you to know back from your travels, some of the original,
like I guess, replicas of the original product that Nintendo created,
which was playing cards. It's just interesting, you know, at
one point the idea of like playing cards or a
(11:09):
game like that is a spiritual successor to technology or
is I guess technology.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
For all intents and purposes?
Speaker 3 (11:17):
I mean to me, the predecessor to carry okay and
this craze would be the old days of singing along
with the radio, gathered around the family den, you know,
or a fixture in every home you know, in the past,
like in the you know, seventeen eighteen hundreds and before
even was a piano, and most everybody would have been
expected to learn how to play the piano. And there
(11:39):
were all of these songbooks that were marketed specifically for
having sing alongs at home. But I don't know, Bend,
do you see what I mean when I'm talking about
that kind of the very short leap from Nintendo making
card games to making technology based games video games.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Sure, yeah, because again they have the infrastructure, and that
that's what Nagishi and Anue are pursuing right There also is,
to an even earlier point, the idea of singing in
terms of a motive expression and communication. We have to
(12:17):
remember that for many cultures, in ancient ancient days, way
before ridiculous history, for many cultures, singing was a way
to encode oral history. So you are moving somehow beyond time.
It's like when you read a good book, there is
a dead person communicating with you directly. It's the author.
(12:42):
It's nuts that no one thinks about that, But I
would say it's also nuts that Annoe did not receive
his right recompense for his invention. But he did, and
you found this He did in two two thousand and
four get a a kind of award.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Kind of yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
I think we've talked about this on the show before,
and certainly I think my first time I remember hearing
about it was on Stuff to Blow your Mind, a
podcast that you work with closely, Ben. The Ignobel Prize Award,
which I guess Ignoble it's sort of a spin on
the Nobel Prize, a parody of that very important prize
given to you know, great thinkers and peacemakers and when
(13:29):
what have you influential people. But this is usually given
to people who invented something like that's considered really.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Stupid, which I think is unfair in this context.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
But it what did recognize him to quote the ceremony
for his contributions to making quote people first laugh and
then think.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
And to be clear, the Ignoble Awards, they started in
nineteen ninety one, and we would call them satire. There
are Sracle Award, you know, they're they're kind of a
pinch on the cheek an at a boy at the
the fancy pants over from the Nobel crew. Also, the
(14:12):
Nobel Prize is entirely made because a guy felt guilty
about inventing dynamite. Forget the Ignoble Prize. Of what I
would say, and I love that you included the quote
there about laughing and then thinking, Uh, all good satire
comes from a place of deep affection, you know. So
(14:33):
the so just to be clear, the Ignoble folks aren't
really pooping on this guy. They're they're having fun. It's
like if uh, you know what it's like when John
Stewart on The Daily Show used to shout out Arby's
in the most hilarious, really mean, satirical way. It was
(14:56):
one of the best things that happened to Arby's, you know.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
And now sure great free marketing. Yeah, they have the meats,
they do have the meats.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
I guess one connection that I would make could be
sort of like what the Razzies are to the Oscars.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
The Ignoble Prize is to the Nobel Prize.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
But also the Razzies, while sometimes more mean spirit than others,
also does come from a bit of a place of affection,
I would argue. So there's actually another name we haven't mentioned,
this guy named Kisoboru Takiji, who was the director of
a company in Japan that was one of the first
big distributors of jukeboxes. Also, again, in an example historically
(15:39):
prevalent example of parallel thinking, combined his jukeboxes with a microphone,
eight track and what's called a magnetophone, which I think
is just a type of speaker. But since we're talking
about technology, you know, there was of course going to
be evolution in the technology of karaoke. That further democratized
(16:00):
it in terms of like who had access to this stuff.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Yeah, and a magnetophone does not have the E at
the end. It's M A G N E t OPHO
N no E at the end. It's the first real
tape recorder.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Okay, got it? So not a speaker. The speaker was
its own thing.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
So instead of using eight track, it was using kind
of like magnetic tape. That makes sense, And that was early,
So that is already an evolution of the technology of karaoke,
going from these sort of more rudimentary eight tracks to
something a little bit more adaptable.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
I mean, a tracks is magnetic tape too. But we
really started to.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
See from the nineteen seventies on with the success of
the kind of original juke eight machines. Between nineteen seventy
six and seventy seven, we started to see big companies
that you've probably heard of, record labels, even companies like
Tashiba and labels like Columbia and Polydor starting to mass
produce karaoke stuff. And then in the eighties further democratized
(17:05):
it with the advent of video cassettes and VCRs and
then CDs of course from Sony and other Japanese company.
You started to see people being able to do their
own karaoke setups at home and not having to go
to bars.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
It democratizes, it democratizes access to the technology for the public.
But it, I would say, does not democratize access to
opportunity for the inventors, because the big boys stepped in
and they did the right thing. When you know, when
(17:40):
Pioneer and Sony and Toshiba and Colombia and you know,
all the hits, when those guys stepped in, they provided
something I've been talking about since the beginning of this series,
the infrastructure which always bedeviled these inventors. We also see,
who pointed out earlier knowl with this the emergence of
(18:04):
themed hangout spots like not not just a cafe that
might occasionally have karaoke, not a not a grocery store
where someone is moved by the spirit and needs you
to hear their interpretation of, you know, nightmare before Christmas.
(18:24):
But we see we see venues specifically created for the
purpose of engaging in karaoke.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
Yeah, and that really is I think the what we
see here in the States in terms of like karaoke
bars are largely modeling after the style and aesthetic and
sort of function of the ones that were originally created
in Asia, which are much more these private room things.
It's not just a bar like the local where they
do karaoke on Wednesday nights on a stage that they
(18:56):
use for other stuff, you know, or they'll have DJs
and stuff. This is a specialized venue or restaurant slash
bar that has private rooms that often have things like
soundproofing and individual systems with wireless microphones. Now, not to mention,
and we haven't even talked about this, but in Asian
karaoke again again which is largely translated over to the
(19:20):
way things are done here, amazing background videos often in
these songs, where it'll be like it looks like a
pharmaceutical ad. Sometimes it'll be just like a happy couple
frolicking through a Wizard of Oz level poppy field kind
of with like psychedelic things happening in the sun. Might
be like a baby like in the Teletubbies or whatever.
(19:41):
So that's another aspect of the culture of karaokes, all
of these crazy cool background videos that are filmed, you know,
to have something visual to look at.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Behind the flashing lyrics.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
I guess we didn't really even mention that because originally
there was no visual component to these machines. Tech just
wasn't there. So what became the true democratizer of carryok
was having that sink sound video component like the bouncing ball.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Yes, nice book in there. We also see what we
call a trend in the zeitgeist because people want to
hang out and do fun stuff together. People want to
feel that they have overcome a fear of public performance
or speaking and get some agilation. That's a very human
(20:32):
thing to do. It becomes mainstreamed, especially in the US
in the nineteen nineties, when we see things like carry
okay fund centers, and then when you go to mass media,
you see a show that I'm gonna be honest, fellow
ridiculous historians. I absolutely loved the first season of Glee.
(20:55):
I liked how they would just burst into song.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
I most I thought it was a delightful show.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
So yeah, but the things like that that infiltrated the
zeit Guy's kind of made singing cool again in a way,
and not that you know, outside of like being a
pop star, because let's be honest, I mean karaoke has
not always had the greatest rap in terms of like
it's it's kind of been poo pooed a little bit
in the past in terms of being sort of like
(21:25):
dorky or something, you know, or like some kind of
lame activity that only like untalented people participate in. But
because of things like Glee TV musical shows, it kind
of became cool again in a way, So I think
there's a lot to be said for that. Companies and
platforms on the internet as well spring up a lot
(21:45):
of the places here in Atlanta that do karaoke.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
They just do it off of YouTube.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
If you google any song karaoke version, you can find
it and you can totally do that at home. And
if you have a setup where you just have like
a little microphone and a speaker and a projector or
a tea, you can run your own karaoke right from
your living room. Karaoke bars also evolved into these kind
of cultural institutions where we started to see competitions emerged.
(22:18):
There is a company called Karaoke World Championship that is
the biggest and most prestigious. This is from their website
directly Global Talent Competition and singing event that brings together
singers from all over the world and as an opportunity
for aspiring singers to show their amazing talents to the
world and to give the crowd an unforgettable experience.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Unforgettable can also mean a lot of things.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Sure can't.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
It's like saying appreciate, but you know what I love
And I may be on my own here. I am
so proud of people when they cross that rubicon, right,
when they bridge that gap and overcome their fear and
have a good time singing right. Perfect is the enemy,
(23:06):
the nemesis of good, right or workful, and so I
love you know honestly, fellow ridiculous historians. The one thing that.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
I would caution you on is please, please, please please
please be very careful and mindful if you think about
performing hip hop as as Carrie.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
Okay, just be very careful which words were not saying not.
I'm not here to clip creative wings. I believe in you,
you specifically you, I got your back, I got your
six Just think through it, you know what I mean,
Because not a good look.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
Especially when people are videoing you and then you're kind
of Karen saying the N word and Kendrick Lamar video
surfaces on the internet.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
You know, I didn't think. I didn't even think about
that part until you brought it up. I'm thinking more
about the the tricky cagence, well, the fact that it's
lyrics first. But I see what you're saying.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
There, tread lightly in that respect.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
But man, you know, of course, the early days of
karaoke were much more japan centric and Asia centric, but
it did of course spread globally, and now we've got
things like this global competition and apps and all of
the stuff that you can use to do all this
stuff right from your living room. Today, karaoke is a
(24:34):
ten billion dollar industry, with still just a pretty small percentage,
about ten percent of that coming from the United States,
and modern karaoke has seen a big old resurgence again
thanks to some of the kind of singing shows and
apps and all that further democratization through technology and really
has evolved into a genuine global phenomenon. There are, though
(24:58):
challenges a little bit about this off air, Ben, I've
always thought, why isn't there a karaoke reality show, a
karaoke competition TV show? And I guess you could argue
that's kind of what American idol is. But it's really
it sort of is because I guess the you know,
early tryouts are you.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Know, usually a little more entertaining in a kind of
bad way. Uh.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
But there are copyright issues to contend with. It's very
expensive to clear all this music. And if I'm not mistaken,
you do have to technically have a license agreement with
the major publishers.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Yeah, to broadcast it, that's the that's the bedeviling thing.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
Well, even to play it in your bar though, like
like venue owners, there is a separate agreement that has
to be filed in order to even play popular music
in a bar.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Yeah, karaoke is serious business. Before we close, I want
to I want to mention on one crazy story. This
is a warning for anybody going to the Philippines. Be
careful with your Sinatra because people will murder you if
you sing Frank Sinatra wrong.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
Philippines because they just love him so much.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
You know, it's it's difficult to figure out. I'd like
to for anybody wants to learn more. I'd like to
shout out our pal Henri Ichimura, who wrote a great
article on this for Esquire. How Frank Sinatra's song my
Way triggered Filipino carry okay killings. What we see is
(26:37):
that my way. Of course, everybody knows my way. Max
is always humming my way, right, I.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
Did it my way that one. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
I'm not gonna do it now, So you don't have
the rights on air. But but I can bang with
that one. So the problem is that people in the
Philippines got I think, un fairly profiled. Like look, the
Philippines loves carryok. Everybody kind of loves carryok. But uh,
(27:09):
they got profiled as folks who were very sensitive about
Sinatra because in two thousand and seven, the security guard
at a carryoke bar shot a guy for singing my
Way off key.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
He told him to stop singing. The guy didn't stop singing,
and then the security guard shot him. And this is
just one of multiple, uh, multiple instances of Sinatra associated
carryok murders.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
I had no idea, Ben, that's pretty wild. I will
definitely keep that, keep that in mind.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Just go with you, go with your earlier.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
They don't for meat loaf, that will They'll be amazing. Yeah,
they'll think you're just freestyling that one.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
You know, you know, what it would be like, though, honestly,
it's sort of like when you eat the like fugu fish,
you're really rolling the dice there as to whether or
not you're gonna get poisoned. This would be like, you
know what, maybe I'm good enough to sing my way
in the pips in.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
The challenge, just give it a go.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Also fugu, I'll say it.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
It's food. It's not that great. It's like numb you
up a little bit, is it really?
Speaker 3 (28:20):
Is it largely exaggerated the idea that it will kill
you dead if you eat the wrong piece it.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
The fish itself can kill people. It is dangerous. But
now in twenty twenty four, if a chef is making
it for you, it's fine. Yeah, you're just you're paying
a lot for you know, the flex for sure caveat gig.
But speaking of flexes, no, this is one thing. We've
(28:47):
been working on this one for a while and this
is one thing that really stood out to me. I
can't remember whether or not I texted you on the
day of, but while we were all kind of cooking
in the lab on the idea of Carrie OK, our
buddy Nagishi, the dude who just wanted to prove to
(29:08):
his colleague that he could sing. He passed away and
he was one hundred years old.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
Dude, what a boss.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
Didn't Jimmy Carter just turn one hundred and he's like
the first president to live to one hundred.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
As of October of this year, you know, knock on wood,
et cetera, James Carter will be one hundred years old.
We can only hope that happens. I'll tell you one
of my favorite quotes about this guy, and Max can agree.
As a presidential history nerd, Jimmy Carter was maybe not
(29:50):
the best president, we always say, but he was one
of the best men to ever be president.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
Great guy, great philanthropy, habitat for humanity.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
Still guy.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Yeah, sorry, we're not talking about Jimmy Carter.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
We're talking about Shaigaichi Nigishi, who was that original electronics
factory entrepreneur who, to your point, Ben, decided to create
a device to make it okay for people to sing badly,
to make it Carrie Okay.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
Hey, Carrie like Gary a tune? Okay, I love it both.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
We're bringing it all back together.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
Nigishi did die of natural causes on January twenty sixth
of this year twenty twenty four. We've been thinking about
this one for a hot minute, and today Japan alone
has more than eight thousand different karaoke facilities and thousands
of bars, snack bars, you know, pubs, restaurants that provide
(30:46):
customers with the opportunity to live out Nigishi's dream.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
Of talking trash dear co workers and say it just
let me get a percussion track on the back here.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
Well, you know, I mean, it takes all kinds.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
Also if you've never been to there are different, you
know genres of carryok establishments and venues. A lot of
them here in the West are going to be you know,
some other business that has a carryoka night, so there's
a big public atmosphere.
Speaker 4 (31:23):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
There are dedicated uh carryok centered venues where you go
and you rent a room by the hour, and the
cool ones give you snacks the longer you stay. That's
just a little a little pro tip there, and the
uh the other ones. You know, you'll have live bands
that have a repertoire of songs.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
There's one here in Atlanta called Mettlesome.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
Mill Monday right right, And those things are also amazing uh,
we hope that you check it out there. This this
reminds me so I rewatched Breaking and one of my
favorite things about Breaking Bad is a chemist named Gail.
This is not a spoiler, al Betteker he had absolutely,
(32:09):
absolutely is awesome at Carryok has got all these songs.
It's a it's a bright point in a dark time,
and maybe that's what draws people to Carryok. Oh, well
said Bet. And the way the way it's depicted in
Breaking Bad. If I'm not mistaken, it.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
Does have some of those wacky video backgrounds, and I
think he's doing that song Earth be Low the sort
of answer to Major Tom, ground control to Major Tom.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Such a fun song.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
But man Ben, speaking of a fun song, I guess
this this has been a fun ridiculous history song.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
I don't know. I'm grasping a straws here. Help me out,
all right?
Speaker 1 (32:52):
Well, thanks as always to our super producer mister Max Williams. Thinks,
of course, to Alex Williams who compose this slap and bop.
Might be nice to write a song with this as
a backing track. What would our lyrics be?
Speaker 2 (33:08):
Let us know.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
You can find us on Facebook at Ridiculous historians. I
don't know if it's a good idea to say that,
but you know, let's see what people come up with.
Speaker 3 (33:15):
Crowdstores did maybe you know, please give us your creations
and just one last little tiny thing before you go.
Is one positive aspect of AI and all of this
is it is much easier now more than ever, to
remove vocals from a recording using apps that are out
there that use machine learning, and it's pretty wild. It
(33:37):
used to be completely impossible and now it is something
that you can do. So you can kind of take
any of your favorite songs and make a karaoke version
out of it. You just just google whatever the top
apps are that do that. I think the good ones
cost maybe a couple bucks, but they're wildly effective.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
And thanks of course to Rachel Big Spinach Lands, the
world expert on underwater explosion. Thanks to our pal aj
Bahamas Jacobs. Thanks to Actually I gotta I gotta reach
out to him about this. Thanks to our pal Jonathan
Strickland aka the quizter. Who o God, I have seen
(34:15):
I feel like I've seen the man murder some karaoke.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
Oh yeah, he's a great singer, big musical theater guy,
We'll see you next time, folks. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
(00:27):
the show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so much
for tuning in. There's our handsome devil of a super producer,
mister Max Williams.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Look at that man? Who's that man?
Speaker 1 (00:40):
If you're wondering, I am still technically alive here on Thursday. Okay,
all right, all right, so we're gonna get We're gonna
get this done before Max does pass from this place. Yeah,
he's a perishable quantity. You are Noel Brown, I am
Ben Bowling, and we are in media arrests would be
the fancy way to say it. Well, we're halfway through
(01:03):
an exploration of something that I think means a lot
to a lot of people.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Absolutely, and it should because it is such a fun
thing to do, to sing badly or goodly if that's
a word, with your close personal friends, or with strangers,
whatever floats your boat. And we're going to get into
all of those options in this second part of the
carry ok episode.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
In Oi does get paid for in part of my pronunciation,
he does get paid for bringing this tape along, and
he gets paid the same as you would if you
were a touring percussionist. And this is where they get
the term carry okay translates from cara, which means empty
(01:56):
plus okay, which means orchestra. So empty orchestra.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Oh, it's so fascinating because it almost sounds like a
diss in a way, but it.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Just kind of means, like, you know, orchestra without people.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
And this is really more a term used for the
concept of like singing along with these types of backing
accompaniment tracks. I don't know that they were necessarily referring
to it certainly wasn't branded as such, but the Juke
eight was the Juke eight. It wasn't the carryoke machine
or carryoke, So I believe the term was really more
(02:32):
referring to kind of the culture surrounding it. But just
to add a little bit of detail around the juke
ate what made it different from the Sparko Box.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
It did involve that eight track player.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
He actually pulled it for the prototype from a car stereo,
combined it with a microphone and amplifier, just like the
Sparko Box, but like I was talking about at the top,
added a reverb box, which in those days would have
been like a spring with a kind of contact microphone
attached to either end, So when the sound of the
(03:01):
microphone goes into that box with the spring, the spring
reverberates and the echo sound is then passed back into
the mixer, so you hear it as kind of like
an echo, super super interesting. You'll see it in like
guitar amplifiers and things of the time. But this also
the juke eight had a coin slot. This was a
coin operated machine, and the eight track tapes that were
(03:23):
used would have been loaded with like a lot of
the most requested songs of between nineteen sixty nine and
nineteen seventy and on. But what really created the phenomenon
that would go on to be karaoke was again that
democratization of being able to express oneself musically, no matter
whether you're a good singer or not, and for all
(03:45):
intents and purposes, for that one shining moment or evening
to become a superstar, to kind of become a lead
singer of a band, being able to sort of stand
in for your favorite artist.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Here's what I love about karaoke as a phenomenon and
as indeed a cultural event. The number one fear, as
I said earlier, for a lot of people is public speaking,
and oftentimes most people feel that they are not heard
(04:17):
right and they feel like everybody else is continually focused
on themselves, which is unfortunately often true when I show
up to these places. I'm there in a public event,
like in a Western version, because I like clapping, I
like supporting people. I'm also very good at clapping.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
So this is.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
This is a gift, yes with both hands. So that's
like you know, two different people at this point. But
this hits again, as I said earlier, a universal appeal.
It helps people learn about themselves, and I would say
it helps people support each other. Now, sing alongs in
(05:05):
some version, as the research Earli or established, have existed
across civilizations. They were a way of encoding history for
quite some time. But now we're in the era of capitalism. Right,
people have to make money. They have a profit motive,
and this maybe max if we could get a bit
(05:27):
of a sad music, not a wompwomp, but just like
a bittersweet thing. H perfect and know we Unfortunately, like Nigishi,
made almost no money from his innovation, but larger companies
(05:47):
were listening.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
The streets were watching.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Oh yeah, the streets were a buzz all at Twitter.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
He only owned a single patent for.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
A time relating to karaoke, which would have been these
like binders, kind of these plastic covered song books, which,
based on our discussions Ben and Max of patents, that's
not particularly novel or unique, Like I'm kind of intrigued
as to how one could patent a bound plastic book
(06:21):
of songs.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
It was a different time.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
I guess it was a different time.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
The funniest thing though, is I don't know that there
was a patent for this, but he did make some
money from kind of I guess a pesticide that he created.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Yeah, he became an ad guy. He became an ass
scene on TV kind of dude, like, hey, you know
me from earlier. I love two things, you know, singing
with other people's music and killing vermin And that's that's
what he was marketing. Like the way they framed it was,
(06:58):
I have created the carry okay box, and I'm super
mad at roaches and rats because they mess with the wires. Yeah,
the the vermin or the natural enemy of the carryok
And then he gets to he gets to this increasingly
(07:21):
this is weird because it's more modern culture thing. But
he gets to this increasingly halcyon position of niche celebrity.
A television channel based out of Singapore finds him and
platforms him in nineteen ninety six, which has just past
(07:41):
the cutoff of Ridiculous History, and he is now now
he's on this TV channel. And guys, if you haven't
seen if you haven't seen TV in Singapore, you must
go to YouTube. I'm sure you can find it somewhere.
This channel was all Krarryok. It was all people doing karaoke,
(08:07):
often in costume as Western icons of old.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
One hundred percent. And I love that you mentioned Ben,
that he was sort of rediscovered. I guess in nineteen
ninety six, well after karaoke had been fully established as
a phenomenon, you know, a cultural kind of thing. And
in this piece for Time Asia, the writer interviews in
Oa and he gives this delightful quote of his legacy.
(08:35):
I guess we're pretending to karaoke. He says, I am
its natural parent, but having given birth to Carryok, I
abandoned it.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
And here in the Ridiculous History cinematic universe picture a
zoom out, a nice fade, we settle upon the escape
of Japan, not Tokyo, you know, not Osaka, not necessarily Kyoto,
just a smaller town where you have folks getting together
(09:10):
for little parties. On the weekend, someone gets married, there's
another social event, and what do they do when they
all hang out? They try to enjoy something together. And
that is where Carrie Okay finds its first modern audience,
because you know, people again, public speaking being a very
(09:35):
real fear for a lot of folks. You've got like imagine,
you know, you're the you're the father of the bride,
you're the father of the groom or whatever. And one
time when your kid, who is now an adult, one
time when that kid was six years old, you did
an absolutely bonkers version of the bird is the word.
(09:57):
And now it's now you have to do it in
front of your old and your new family. So there's
this accessibility, there's a I would say, there is a
unifying affection involved, and so there is with this in mind,
there is no surprise that Annoy's idea or multiple people's
(10:22):
ideas spread throughout Japan and then across the world because
it's a fun thing. Like imagine, you know, in the
days before social media and streaming video and God saved
me for saying it. Before podcast people would hang out
and try to figure out fun stuff to do with
(10:43):
each other, like playing cards and carry okay, fulfills that need.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
Oh man, Ben, you brought Matt Frederick and I am
att our co host on that stuff that I want
you to know back from your travels, some of the original,
like I guess, replicas of the original product that Nintendo created,
which was playing cards. It's just interesting, you know, at
one point the idea of like playing cards or a
(11:09):
game like that is a spiritual successor to technology or
is I guess technology.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
For all intents and purposes?
Speaker 3 (11:17):
I mean to me, the predecessor to carry okay and
this craze would be the old days of singing along
with the radio, gathered around the family den, you know,
or a fixture in every home you know, in the past,
like in the you know, seventeen eighteen hundreds and before
even was a piano, and most everybody would have been
expected to learn how to play the piano. And there
(11:39):
were all of these songbooks that were marketed specifically for
having sing alongs at home. But I don't know, Bend,
do you see what I mean when I'm talking about
that kind of the very short leap from Nintendo making
card games to making technology based games video games.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Sure, yeah, because again they have the infrastructure, and that
that's what Nagishi and Anue are pursuing right There also is,
to an even earlier point, the idea of singing in
terms of a motive expression and communication. We have to
(12:17):
remember that for many cultures, in ancient ancient days, way
before ridiculous history, for many cultures, singing was a way
to encode oral history. So you are moving somehow beyond time.
It's like when you read a good book, there is
a dead person communicating with you directly. It's the author.
(12:42):
It's nuts that no one thinks about that, But I
would say it's also nuts that Annoe did not receive
his right recompense for his invention. But he did, and
you found this He did in two two thousand and
four get a a kind of award.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Kind of yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
I think we've talked about this on the show before,
and certainly I think my first time I remember hearing
about it was on Stuff to Blow your Mind, a
podcast that you work with closely, Ben. The Ignobel Prize Award,
which I guess Ignoble it's sort of a spin on
the Nobel Prize, a parody of that very important prize
given to you know, great thinkers and peacemakers and when
(13:29):
what have you influential people. But this is usually given
to people who invented something like that's considered really.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Stupid, which I think is unfair in this context.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
But it what did recognize him to quote the ceremony
for his contributions to making quote people first laugh and
then think.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
And to be clear, the Ignoble Awards, they started in
nineteen ninety one, and we would call them satire. There
are Sracle Award, you know, they're they're kind of a
pinch on the cheek an at a boy at the
the fancy pants over from the Nobel crew. Also, the
(14:12):
Nobel Prize is entirely made because a guy felt guilty
about inventing dynamite. Forget the Ignoble Prize. Of what I
would say, and I love that you included the quote
there about laughing and then thinking, Uh, all good satire
comes from a place of deep affection, you know. So
(14:33):
the so just to be clear, the Ignoble folks aren't
really pooping on this guy. They're they're having fun. It's
like if uh, you know what it's like when John
Stewart on The Daily Show used to shout out Arby's
in the most hilarious, really mean, satirical way. It was
(14:56):
one of the best things that happened to Arby's, you know.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
And now sure great free marketing. Yeah, they have the meats,
they do have the meats.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
I guess one connection that I would make could be
sort of like what the Razzies are to the Oscars.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
The Ignoble Prize is to the Nobel Prize.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
But also the Razzies, while sometimes more mean spirit than others,
also does come from a bit of a place of affection,
I would argue. So there's actually another name we haven't mentioned,
this guy named Kisoboru Takiji, who was the director of
a company in Japan that was one of the first
big distributors of jukeboxes. Also, again, in an example historically
(15:39):
prevalent example of parallel thinking, combined his jukeboxes with a microphone,
eight track and what's called a magnetophone, which I think
is just a type of speaker. But since we're talking
about technology, you know, there was of course going to
be evolution in the technology of karaoke. That further democratized
(16:00):
it in terms of like who had access to this stuff.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Yeah, and a magnetophone does not have the E at
the end. It's M A G N E t OPHO
N no E at the end. It's the first real
tape recorder.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Okay, got it? So not a speaker. The speaker was
its own thing.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
So instead of using eight track, it was using kind
of like magnetic tape. That makes sense, And that was early,
So that is already an evolution of the technology of karaoke,
going from these sort of more rudimentary eight tracks to
something a little bit more adaptable.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
I mean, a tracks is magnetic tape too. But we
really started to.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
See from the nineteen seventies on with the success of
the kind of original juke eight machines. Between nineteen seventy
six and seventy seven, we started to see big companies
that you've probably heard of, record labels, even companies like
Tashiba and labels like Columbia and Polydor starting to mass
produce karaoke stuff. And then in the eighties further democratized
(17:05):
it with the advent of video cassettes and VCRs and
then CDs of course from Sony and other Japanese company.
You started to see people being able to do their
own karaoke setups at home and not having to go
to bars.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
It democratizes, it democratizes access to the technology for the public.
But it, I would say, does not democratize access to
opportunity for the inventors, because the big boys stepped in
and they did the right thing. When you know, when
(17:40):
Pioneer and Sony and Toshiba and Colombia and you know,
all the hits, when those guys stepped in, they provided
something I've been talking about since the beginning of this series,
the infrastructure which always bedeviled these inventors. We also see,
who pointed out earlier knowl with this the emergence of
(18:04):
themed hangout spots like not not just a cafe that
might occasionally have karaoke, not a not a grocery store
where someone is moved by the spirit and needs you
to hear their interpretation of, you know, nightmare before Christmas.
(18:24):
But we see we see venues specifically created for the
purpose of engaging in karaoke.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
Yeah, and that really is I think the what we
see here in the States in terms of like karaoke
bars are largely modeling after the style and aesthetic and
sort of function of the ones that were originally created
in Asia, which are much more these private room things.
It's not just a bar like the local where they
do karaoke on Wednesday nights on a stage that they
(18:56):
use for other stuff, you know, or they'll have DJs
and stuff. This is a specialized venue or restaurant slash
bar that has private rooms that often have things like
soundproofing and individual systems with wireless microphones. Now, not to mention,
and we haven't even talked about this, but in Asian
karaoke again again which is largely translated over to the
(19:20):
way things are done here, amazing background videos often in
these songs, where it'll be like it looks like a
pharmaceutical ad. Sometimes it'll be just like a happy couple
frolicking through a Wizard of Oz level poppy field kind
of with like psychedelic things happening in the sun. Might
be like a baby like in the Teletubbies or whatever.
(19:41):
So that's another aspect of the culture of karaokes, all
of these crazy cool background videos that are filmed, you know,
to have something visual to look at.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Behind the flashing lyrics.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
I guess we didn't really even mention that because originally
there was no visual component to these machines. Tech just
wasn't there. So what became the true democratizer of carryok
was having that sink sound video component like the bouncing ball.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Yes, nice book in there. We also see what we
call a trend in the zeitgeist because people want to
hang out and do fun stuff together. People want to
feel that they have overcome a fear of public performance
or speaking and get some agilation. That's a very human
(20:32):
thing to do. It becomes mainstreamed, especially in the US
in the nineteen nineties, when we see things like carry
okay fund centers, and then when you go to mass media,
you see a show that I'm gonna be honest, fellow
ridiculous historians. I absolutely loved the first season of Glee.
(20:55):
I liked how they would just burst into song.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
I most I thought it was a delightful show.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
So yeah, but the things like that that infiltrated the
zeit Guy's kind of made singing cool again in a way,
and not that you know, outside of like being a
pop star, because let's be honest, I mean karaoke has
not always had the greatest rap in terms of like
it's it's kind of been poo pooed a little bit
in the past in terms of being sort of like
(21:25):
dorky or something, you know, or like some kind of
lame activity that only like untalented people participate in. But
because of things like Glee TV musical shows, it kind
of became cool again in a way, So I think
there's a lot to be said for that. Companies and
platforms on the internet as well spring up a lot
(21:45):
of the places here in Atlanta that do karaoke.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
They just do it off of YouTube.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
If you google any song karaoke version, you can find
it and you can totally do that at home. And
if you have a setup where you just have like
a little microphone and a speaker and a projector or
a tea, you can run your own karaoke right from
your living room. Karaoke bars also evolved into these kind
of cultural institutions where we started to see competitions emerged.
(22:18):
There is a company called Karaoke World Championship that is
the biggest and most prestigious. This is from their website
directly Global Talent Competition and singing event that brings together
singers from all over the world and as an opportunity
for aspiring singers to show their amazing talents to the
world and to give the crowd an unforgettable experience.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Unforgettable can also mean a lot of things.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Sure can't.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
It's like saying appreciate, but you know what I love
And I may be on my own here. I am
so proud of people when they cross that rubicon, right,
when they bridge that gap and overcome their fear and
have a good time singing right. Perfect is the enemy,
(23:06):
the nemesis of good, right or workful, and so I
love you know honestly, fellow ridiculous historians. The one thing that.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
I would caution you on is please, please, please please
please be very careful and mindful if you think about
performing hip hop as as Carrie.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
Okay, just be very careful which words were not saying not.
I'm not here to clip creative wings. I believe in you,
you specifically you, I got your back, I got your
six Just think through it, you know what I mean,
Because not a good look.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
Especially when people are videoing you and then you're kind
of Karen saying the N word and Kendrick Lamar video
surfaces on the internet.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
You know, I didn't think. I didn't even think about
that part until you brought it up. I'm thinking more
about the the tricky cagence, well, the fact that it's
lyrics first. But I see what you're saying.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
There, tread lightly in that respect.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
But man, you know, of course, the early days of
karaoke were much more japan centric and Asia centric, but
it did of course spread globally, and now we've got
things like this global competition and apps and all of
the stuff that you can use to do all this
stuff right from your living room. Today, karaoke is a
(24:34):
ten billion dollar industry, with still just a pretty small percentage,
about ten percent of that coming from the United States,
and modern karaoke has seen a big old resurgence again
thanks to some of the kind of singing shows and
apps and all that further democratization through technology and really
has evolved into a genuine global phenomenon. There are, though
(24:58):
challenges a little bit about this off air, Ben, I've
always thought, why isn't there a karaoke reality show, a
karaoke competition TV show? And I guess you could argue
that's kind of what American idol is. But it's really
it sort of is because I guess the you know,
early tryouts are you.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Know, usually a little more entertaining in a kind of
bad way. Uh.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
But there are copyright issues to contend with. It's very
expensive to clear all this music. And if I'm not mistaken,
you do have to technically have a license agreement with
the major publishers.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Yeah, to broadcast it, that's the that's the bedeviling thing.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
Well, even to play it in your bar though, like
like venue owners, there is a separate agreement that has
to be filed in order to even play popular music
in a bar.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Yeah, karaoke is serious business. Before we close, I want
to I want to mention on one crazy story. This
is a warning for anybody going to the Philippines. Be
careful with your Sinatra because people will murder you if
you sing Frank Sinatra wrong.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
Philippines because they just love him so much.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
You know, it's it's difficult to figure out. I'd like
to for anybody wants to learn more. I'd like to
shout out our pal Henri Ichimura, who wrote a great
article on this for Esquire. How Frank Sinatra's song my
Way triggered Filipino carry okay killings. What we see is
(26:37):
that my way. Of course, everybody knows my way. Max
is always humming my way, right, I.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
Did it my way that one. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
I'm not gonna do it now, So you don't have
the rights on air. But but I can bang with
that one. So the problem is that people in the
Philippines got I think, un fairly profiled. Like look, the
Philippines loves carryok. Everybody kind of loves carryok. But uh,
(27:09):
they got profiled as folks who were very sensitive about
Sinatra because in two thousand and seven, the security guard
at a carryoke bar shot a guy for singing my
Way off key.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
He told him to stop singing. The guy didn't stop singing,
and then the security guard shot him. And this is
just one of multiple, uh, multiple instances of Sinatra associated
carryok murders.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
I had no idea, Ben, that's pretty wild. I will
definitely keep that, keep that in mind.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Just go with you, go with your earlier.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
They don't for meat loaf, that will They'll be amazing. Yeah,
they'll think you're just freestyling that one.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
You know, you know, what it would be like, though, honestly,
it's sort of like when you eat the like fugu fish,
you're really rolling the dice there as to whether or
not you're gonna get poisoned. This would be like, you
know what, maybe I'm good enough to sing my way
in the pips in.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
The challenge, just give it a go.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Also fugu, I'll say it.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
It's food. It's not that great. It's like numb you
up a little bit, is it really?
Speaker 3 (28:20):
Is it largely exaggerated the idea that it will kill
you dead if you eat the wrong piece it.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
The fish itself can kill people. It is dangerous. But
now in twenty twenty four, if a chef is making
it for you, it's fine. Yeah, you're just you're paying
a lot for you know, the flex for sure caveat gig.
But speaking of flexes, no, this is one thing. We've
(28:47):
been working on this one for a while and this
is one thing that really stood out to me. I
can't remember whether or not I texted you on the
day of, but while we were all kind of cooking
in the lab on the idea of Carrie OK, our
buddy Nagishi, the dude who just wanted to prove to
(29:08):
his colleague that he could sing. He passed away and
he was one hundred years old.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
Dude, what a boss.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
Didn't Jimmy Carter just turn one hundred and he's like
the first president to live to one hundred.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
As of October of this year, you know, knock on wood,
et cetera, James Carter will be one hundred years old.
We can only hope that happens. I'll tell you one
of my favorite quotes about this guy, and Max can agree.
As a presidential history nerd, Jimmy Carter was maybe not
(29:50):
the best president, we always say, but he was one
of the best men to ever be president.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
Great guy, great philanthropy, habitat for humanity.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
Still guy.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Yeah, sorry, we're not talking about Jimmy Carter.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
We're talking about Shaigaichi Nigishi, who was that original electronics
factory entrepreneur who, to your point, Ben, decided to create
a device to make it okay for people to sing badly,
to make it Carrie Okay.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
Hey, Carrie like Gary a tune? Okay, I love it both.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
We're bringing it all back together.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
Nigishi did die of natural causes on January twenty sixth
of this year twenty twenty four. We've been thinking about
this one for a hot minute, and today Japan alone
has more than eight thousand different karaoke facilities and thousands
of bars, snack bars, you know, pubs, restaurants that provide
(30:46):
customers with the opportunity to live out Nigishi's dream.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
Of talking trash dear co workers and say it just
let me get a percussion track on the back here.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
Well, you know, I mean, it takes all kinds.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
Also if you've never been to there are different, you
know genres of carryok establishments and venues. A lot of
them here in the West are going to be you know,
some other business that has a carryoka night, so there's
a big public atmosphere.
Speaker 4 (31:23):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
There are dedicated uh carryok centered venues where you go
and you rent a room by the hour, and the
cool ones give you snacks the longer you stay. That's
just a little a little pro tip there, and the
uh the other ones. You know, you'll have live bands
that have a repertoire of songs.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
There's one here in Atlanta called Mettlesome.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
Mill Monday right right, And those things are also amazing uh,
we hope that you check it out there. This this
reminds me so I rewatched Breaking and one of my
favorite things about Breaking Bad is a chemist named Gail.
This is not a spoiler, al Betteker he had absolutely,
(32:09):
absolutely is awesome at Carryok has got all these songs.
It's a it's a bright point in a dark time,
and maybe that's what draws people to Carryok. Oh, well
said Bet. And the way the way it's depicted in
Breaking Bad. If I'm not mistaken, it.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
Does have some of those wacky video backgrounds, and I
think he's doing that song Earth be Low the sort
of answer to Major Tom, ground control to Major Tom.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Such a fun song.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
But man Ben, speaking of a fun song, I guess
this this has been a fun ridiculous history song.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
I don't know. I'm grasping a straws here. Help me out,
all right?
Speaker 1 (32:52):
Well, thanks as always to our super producer mister Max Williams. Thinks,
of course, to Alex Williams who compose this slap and bop.
Might be nice to write a song with this as
a backing track. What would our lyrics be?
Speaker 2 (33:08):
Let us know.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
You can find us on Facebook at Ridiculous historians. I
don't know if it's a good idea to say that,
but you know, let's see what people come up with.
Speaker 3 (33:15):
Crowdstores did maybe you know, please give us your creations
and just one last little tiny thing before you go.
Is one positive aspect of AI and all of this
is it is much easier now more than ever, to
remove vocals from a recording using apps that are out
there that use machine learning, and it's pretty wild. It
(33:37):
used to be completely impossible and now it is something
that you can do. So you can kind of take
any of your favorite songs and make a karaoke version
out of it. You just just google whatever the top
apps are that do that. I think the good ones
cost maybe a couple bucks, but they're wildly effective.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
And thanks of course to Rachel Big Spinach Lands, the
world expert on underwater explosion. Thanks to our pal aj
Bahamas Jacobs. Thanks to Actually I gotta I gotta reach
out to him about this. Thanks to our pal Jonathan
Strickland aka the quizter. Who o God, I have seen
(34:15):
I feel like I've seen the man murder some karaoke.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
Oh yeah, he's a great singer, big musical theater guy,
We'll see you next time, folks. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History News
Hosts And Creators
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
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