Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Early Form of Karaoke Discovered

The other day I was given the chance to listen to some of Boney M's music being performed by the Cliff Carpenter Orchestra. From what I was told, Cliff Carpenter was another German band leader in the James Last style. However when I played the MP3's I had been given, they sounded so much like the original recordings by Boney M. I later found out that Hansa Records, the label that Boney M were assigned to, also had Cliff Carpenter signed on their books, and that they allowed Cliff Carpenter to use the backing tracks from the artist he wish to use on his recordings.

From doing some research, on Cliff Carpenter, I believe Cliff Carpenter's music is an early form of karaoke, because all he did to make the recordings his own, was replace the vocals with an instrument such as a trumpet, saxophone or strings, making the songs ideal to sing karaoke to, as you have the original backing track to help you along, as in so many karaoke tracks the track doesn't sound like the original, making it harder to sinng to. I also found out, during my research, that in Germany Cliff was known as the poor man's James Last, which probably means that his records were sold at a cheap price, which probably explains the use of original backing tracks.

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