Who Makes Those Karaoke Tracks?

To build his B.K.K. originals, Brophy scours eBay for old 45s with instrumental B-sides. He sometimes builds hip-hop songs by isolating the samples the original producers used and stacking them block by block, like Legos. He works on songs online with a network of like-minded D.I.Y. K.J.’s around the world. Sometimes, in a sound-dampened studio in his basement, he records whole tracks from scratch, playing the guitar and bass himself. He once drove himself crazy recording the bass for Joy Division’s “Transmission.”

I wonder whose job it is to [do whatever odd job people do] is a question we ask sometimes, and Dan Kois answers the question, I wonder whose job it is to make all those karaoke tracks for karaoke bars in this week’s Times Magazine. It’s fun. Kois performs Radiohead’s electioneering and tosses a few dollars into the tip jar (which is another question we’ve asked ourselves: What is the proper tip etiquette at karaoke bars?).

Photo: wordridden

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