At first, we didn t get it. TV screens scroll song lyrics while music plays.
Amateurs line up to sing on center stage.
With microphone in hand, brave volunteers croon to the audience. Legends say it all started when a bar owner in Kobe City, Japan couldn t afford to hire a band for his vocalist. Instead, he stripped the vocals from already recorded songs and used that as the backup music. That happened two decades ago. The act was eventually commercialized and transformed into a multimillion dollar worldwide industry.