Friday, March 13, 2009

Karaoke

I have a friend visiting and she said she wanted to go do karaoke when she found out how it was set up here in Japan, that is your party gets a room all to yourselves to choose and skip whichever songs you like and you only have to listen to your friends. Each room comes with two microphones so you can sing duets, and there are tambourines and maracas for your friends to play as you sing. It's a lot of fun. My friend and I arrived first, and, instead of waiting, we decided to start our singing session. The place we went had a large selection of songs in English, which was nice. I was surprised to see so much Patsy Cline, in fact, and as I was not sure which song I wanted to sing, I chose all of them, which was about six songs. Two of the friends who were joining us walked in when one of them came on. They sat and listened for a minute and then asked whose song I was singing. I replied Patsy Cline, to which they replied, "who?" Whoa.


Is it an age thing? They're only seven years younger than I am.

Is it a geographical thing? They're from up North, NYC and DC.

Is it a culture thing? The North vs. The South?

I mean there was a movie--a decent movie, made about Patsy Cline's life. Wasn't it required viewing where they went to school? It was for us. (Yes, I'm kidding.) I mean, surely Patsy Cline would be as popular today as Dolly Parton is had she lived.

My friend said it was probably a north vs. south thing, but I'm not sure I agree with that. Just last month I said something to another young JET here about The Smiths and she had never heard of them. Am I really that old? Perhaps they just weren't as popular as I thought they were. Nah! That couldn't be it. Right? Please, someone tell me I'm right and that these kids--excuse me, people, just somehow missed out on some really good music.

2 comments:

John Pluecker said...

i think it's a southern thing. patsy cline is like a saint for us. you know that.

just my 2 cents.

and as far as the smiths, well that's a homo thing i think.

abrazos mil.

Unknown said...

7-8 years definitely makes a difference. but we still love your patsy kline lovin ways.