Full name: Don't Stop Believin': How Karaoke Conquered the World and Changed My Life

Author: Brian Raftery Year: 2008 Rank: Rating: Original Rating: Pop Rating: Genres/categories: Music, Non Fiction Purchase/reserch links: LibraryThing Goodreads Amazon ISBNs: 9780306815836 0306815834

Armed with a keen eye and a terrible singing voice, writer Brian Raftery sets out across the globe, tracing karaoke's evolution from cult fad to multi-million dollar phenomenon. In Japan, he meets Daisuke Inoue, the godfather of karaoke; in Thailand, he follows a group of Americans hoping to win the Karaoke World Championships; and in New York City, he hangs out backstage with the world's longest-running heavy-metal karaoke band. Along the way, Raftery chronicles his own time as an obsessive karaoke fan, recalling a life's worth of noisy relationships and poor song choices, and analyzing the karaoke-bar merits of such artists as Prince, Bob Dylan and Fugazi. Part cultural history, part memoir, Don't Stop Believin': How Karaoke Conquered the World and Changed My Life is a hilarious and densely reported look at the liberating effects of a good sing-along. Similar books: Jimmy Page by Jimmy Page by Jimmy Page Punk Avenue by Phil Marcade The Jazz Theory Book by Mark Levine Writing Better Lyrics by Pat Pattison Tunesmith by Jimmy Webb Waylon by Terry Jennings Dinner with Lenny by Jonathan Cott Mastering Audio, the art and the science by Bob Katz Ego Trip's Book of Rap Lists by Sacha Jenkins Beatlesongs by William J. Dowlding Pharrell by Pharrell Williams How to Listen to Great Music by Robert Greenberg Despite Everything by Aaron Cometbus The Mixing Engineer's Handbook by Bobby Owsinski 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die by Robert Dimery Early Jazz by Gunther Schuller Music as Alchemy by Tom Service Indivisible by Four by Arnold Steinhardt Feel Like Going Home by Peter Guralnick The Art of Piano Playing by Heinrich Neuhaus