Karaoke Terms



Jūhachiban

(also ohako, literally, number 18). Many karaoke singers have one song which they are especially good at, and which they use to show off their singing abilities. In Japan, this is called jūhachiban in reference to the eighteen most popular kabuki plays. In Hong Kong, such a song is called a “banquet song”.



Karamovie or Movioke

Karaoke using scenes from movies. Amateur actors replace their favourite movie stars in popular movies. Usually facilitated by software or remote control muting and screen blanking/freezing. Karamovie originated in 2003.



Karaoke jockey or KJ

A karaoke jockey plays and manages the music for a venue. The role of the KJ often includes announcing song titles and whose turn it is to use the microphone.

The word KTV can also mean Karaoke Music Video, a music video with karaoke lyrics and MMO audio track. Some karaoke music videos were sold to KTV establishments under exclusivity contracts, causing some people to steal karaoke music videos and share them on the Internet. These are often found on the Internet in MPEG or VCD format with the string “(KTV)” appended to the filename.

Hitokara

Some people go karaoke alone. It is called hitokara (hito, “one person” or “alone” and kara "karaoke”) in Japan.