Karaoke 24/7The intoxicating appeal of singing online.
By Michelle Tsai
Posted Tuesday, July 10, 2007, at 11:56 AM ET
Illustration by Mark Alan Stamaty. Click image to expand.I've always felt uncomfortable living my life online. I have a MySpace profile, but it's empty. I don't blog. And I won't post pictures on Flickr if they feature me or anyone I know. But recently, I learned that I'm not completely opposed to Internet exhibitionism. When it comes to online karaoke, I'm a microphone-hogging fame whore.
SingShot is, basically, a social network for people who think they can carry a tune. When I logged on for the first time, I found a karaoke sanctum where fanatics gushed over one another's songs, made friends (Hi, Vanee!), and thanked their fans with bizarre, New Age-y monologues. The site also tracks each song's vitals—how many times it's recorded, which members sang their own versions, and how those renditions were rated.
At first, I felt embarrassed for everyone. Who were these people dancing on their Webcams to "Baby Got Back"? Didn't they know anybody could be listening? But these people seemed to want an audience. They craved approval for their interpretations of Phil Collins songs, and they genuinely cared about everyone's opinions. That kind of earnestness seemed to belong to a different decade, a time before Simon Cowell found fame picking apart aspiring singers on primetime TV. All of that sincerity drew me in, and I found a lot of great performances. Each time I finished listening to someone else's performance, SingShot prompted me to record my own. I couldn't resist—I had to know how I'd be judged. Was my singing any good?
this is very interesting.....
