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

Don't Stop Believin': How Karaoke Conquered the World and Changed My Life by Raftery, Brian. Paperback edition. ISBN: 9780306815836.

Armed with a keen eye and a terrible singing voice, writer Brian Raftery sets out across the globe, tracing karaokes 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 worlds longest-running heavy-metal karaoke band. Along the way, Raftery chronicles his own time as an obsessive karaoke fan, recalling a lifes 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, Dont 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.