![]() The clientele, a hostess said, is usually Japanese, with an occasional American in tow. Above the bar are television sets hooked up to a Pioneer laser karaoke system, which plays instrumental versions of songs and displays lyrics (lighting up when it's time to sing them) against a video-clip backdrop, with Grade-B actors and actresses looking soulful. Hagi is a living-room-size place with banquettes on one wall, a bar against another and a small side alcove on weekends, it is open until about 4 A.M., pepping up around 10:30 P.M. A song menu, with choices in Japanese and English, is handed to everyone who enters hostesses serve snacks, take drink orders, make conversation and ask, "Would you like to sing?" ![]() Hagi, an unmarked club at 142 West 49th Street, in the basement of the Iroha restaurant, is a typical Japanese karaoke club, though admission prices at other clubs can run higher than Hagi's $10 at the bar and $20 at tables. At Japanese clubs, it is a hybrid of public performance and private reverie. But karaoke is at once more individualistic, with a different singer for every song, and more technological, usually with music on tapes or laser disks. At American piano bars, the closest thing to karaoke clubs, people sing along while a long-suffering pianist takes requests and dreams of becoming Billy Joel. ![]() Heavy-metal fans do it at arenas, holding up flaming cigarette lighters Trinidadians shout along with choruses of their favorite soca songs as they dance. Many cultures and subcultures have their own kinds of sing-alongs. ![]() But Japanese devotees of karaoke also have their own clubs, with a hint of the speak-easy about them - small places where people are admitted through unmarked, locked doors after being checked through a peephole or a video camera. The city's self-consciously hip club-hoppers discovered karaoke (the word means empty orchestra, in Japanese) clubs about a year ago, and most have probably moved on to other diversions, but the clubs continue, and the idea is trickling down to a broader audience at places like the Sing-along restaurant on West 19th Street, which caters largely to American tastes. Karaoke (pronounced kah-rah-OH-kay) lets pop fans act out the way they feel about a song, whether the song puts unspoken feelings into words or becomes a show-off's springboard. That's the lure of karaoke clubs, the casual sing-along places that have sprung up as part of New York's Japanese subculture. Holding a microphone, singing a favorite song, everybody can be a star for a few minutes. ![]()
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