It seems like five years have passed since I didn't go to karaoke. Sitting in a dark and closed space after an uninvited guest, 'panic disorder', was uncomfortable at times, and in the meantime, COVID-19 naturally made me feel a little further away. 

Until now, like a nation of fun and fashion, and its descendants, I also thought that it was natural for me to go to karaoke when the excitement of a gathering rises. I like singing more than anyone else, and I like singing more than anyone else, so living in a country where karaoke culture is deeply rooted was sometimes a great comfort. 

Before karaoke, there was a thing called 'Karaoke' that was brought directly from Japan. I still vividly remember the day I first encountered this karaoke culture when I was working hard at my company a long time ago. 

It was the day he received a wedding invitation from his brother's longtime best friend, the older brother of the neighborhood he lived in when he was young, and who he had a bond as close to his real brother. After having dinner with the two of us who will be married, my brother, and me, the place we stopped by for a quick second drink was the karaoke bar in the city center. 

People who wanted to freely sit around a round table to drink or sing a song were requested, and when the accompaniment of the song they requested was played, the microphone was handed to them and they sang. 

Born into a family of artists, our brothers and sisters, who would be sad if it were a second song, sang endlessly love songs for the protagonists of the day. We were drenched in the sound of applause from the unfamiliar crowd, we took out all the 'repertoire' we had accumulated over the years and colored the atmosphere of the day with our own colors. And as a few years passed, karaoke gradually disappeared and karaoke began to appear one by one. At first, it was located in the city with a lot of floating population and later in every neighborhood, so it was so successful that the lights were not turned off until dawn as well as late in the evening. 

There were even rumors that if you go to OO karaoke, your score will be generous, and there were also a lot of talk about whether going to OO karaoke would be good for everyone. Therefore, karaoke was recognized as the perfect place to gather and wrap up the end of a tiring day. 

It is very grateful to know that there is something that many people can do happily and happily with one heart and one mind at an affordable cost, and that there is such a place. Everyone becomes a singer at karaoke, whether they sing well or not. It doesn't matter if you get 100 points or 50 points. It's okay if the pitch and tempo aren't accurate, or if you can't memorize all the lyrics. 

In a karaoke room, you can have your own 'zone' where you can have a lot of fun with a few songs you can sing. Perhaps this culture likes to play, and in addition to that, I often felt that it was possible because Koreans had the gene to play properly. 

Think about whether there are people around you who have never been to a karaoke bar... Is there any other place besides karaoke where people of all ages can become one? Karaoke rooms that bring everyone together like this, seem to be changing a lot lately. 

The era of becoming bigger and bigger since karaoke is slowly receding, and there are many places that have been transformed into a small but fruitful 'coin karaoke room (called 'Kono' for short). I must confess, I have never been to a 'coin karaoke'. But now that I hear it, it seems that the new generation these days are saying that they relieve the stress they have accumulated here. 

My daughter and her friends said that they stopped by coin karaoke after a long time to go on a trip. I expected that it would take at least two hours since I would receive ramen service by my standards, but I was surprised to get home so quickly. 

And I was once more surprised by the daughter's explanation, "Someone spends a long time at karaoke these days, so just 30 minutes is enough. Coin karaoke is small, and you can just concentrate and play for 30 minutes or so." 

I felt that the karaoke culture of those days, when we sang for hours so that we were thirsty at the first karaoke we went to, and then saved several reservation numbers because we wanted to sing more to each other, is now moving to a new generation and changing clothes. 

Nowadays, even if it is not a karaoke room, there are many establishments and facilities equipped with karaoke equipment, so if you want to, you will be able to sing in such a place. However, in a standardized place called karaoke, it is possible to radiate 'excitement' with people with whom you share your heart above all else because it is there. 

Recently, I heard that the 'desire to sing' is amazing. Maybe that's why, when regulations are relaxed, there was a karaoke bar among the places I wanted to find. Of course, I am no exception. If you enter a narrow and dark place, your heart may still lose its way and thump, but the desire to sing to the fullest is quite earnest. 

There are still 'dangers of infection' scattered all over the place, so there are some parts that make it difficult to take a step forward, but I want to present a moment of happiness and a sense of liberation to myself, who has struggled to strictly follow the quarantine rules. If you can thoroughly enjoy personal hygiene as you normally do, wouldn't you be able to enjoy the intense scent of May spreading throughout your body in just a few songs? 

I don't know, but at this time, I'm just as excited as the MZ generation, and my daughter may sing Zaza's 'In the Bus' in a video and do a shoulder dance with excitement. 

Source: Hwoen Kim, Oh My News! Blog