David Byrne brings karaoke to the US in 1987

[martinfoyle]

Like our Elvis, David Byrne's a great man for bringing art to the masses. Back in 1987 he introduced karaoke to the US and, incredibly, someone got it on tape. It's being torrented here.

Backstory longer than the torrent: For years, a friend said he had this bizarre little tape at the end of an unrelated cassette, I said yea sure. After 2-3 years he finally found it. The story was that a friend of his had gone out and taped another show then went to this club later that had an open mike night or something. All of a sudden, there's David Byrne and this weird contraption that plays backing tracks. He pulls out the deck and mikes and proceeds to get both songs Dave sings (he of course was too late to get Byrne going on stage) at the end of the tape he had used earlier. Don't know if there was more, but my friend said there wasn't.

So this is at worst a third gen cassette. Where else do you hear Dave do Sixteen Tons & Whole Lotta Love. You may not put it in rotation on the iPod, but I promise you'll have a few giggles.

David Byrne w/ karaoke machine
The Tunnel NYC 3/4/87 50.5MB

(there is an intro)
2. 16 Tons
3. Whole Lotta Love

aud>cassette(3)>cdr(0)>eac>flac>you

[Masterpiece?]

Wasn't there a whole karaoke scene in his movie True Stories, which came out in '86? It's in the video for Wild Wild Life, too...I remember John Goodman being one of the singers, before he was "Roseanne" famous.

[Tim(e)]

I am sure that karaoke was well and truely already established in the US a long time before David Byrne popularised it in the Wild Wild Life clip from True Stories.

I was first introduced to a proper Japanese karaoke bar here in Sydney at around that time and it had already been in existence for some time before then...and I cannot imagine the US with its large Japanese population would have been behind Australia in discovering the empty orchestra.

[bobster]

A former boss claimed that the Beverly Hills tchotzche store he got his start as "Gadget Guy" in was the first to introduce karoke to U.S. consumers sometime in the early eighties, I think.

(He also claims to have been the "original" Arnold Horshack from "Welcome Back, Kotter", but that's another story...)

[martinfoyle]

Here's a piece that clarifies things.

Karaoke first came to the United States in Asian restaurants. Non–Asian Americans were introduced to the new fad by Johnny Carson (1925–; see entry under 1960s—TV and Radio in volume 4) on The Tonight Show (see entry under 1950s—TV and Radio in volume 3) on NBC in 1986. Soon karaoke bars opened all over the United States. Americans do not have a long tradition of performing for each other, but they do often have a hunger for the spotlight, and karaoke offered amateurs a moment on center stage. Although the first karaoke venues were bars and restaurants, home karaoke machines became more popular in the 1990s.