The Psychology of Song Selection Among Friends in Karaoke Environments

One of the musical topics of the day revolved around songs people sing at karaoke, and at open mic type events.  I imagine there's a psychology dissertation to be written around karaoke music selection.

Let's see... there's Positive Psychological and Interpersonal Effects of Karaoke, which was presented at the 12 Annual Conference on Music Perception and Cognition.  Sounds like a party.  But my ten second use of Google Scholar did not return results that suggested there's been a serious study of the psychology of song choice in karaoke situations compared to open mic night situations.

Here's my theory:  Most people who sing karaoke don't take karaoke very seriously.  But most people who sign up for an open mic night take open mic night seriously.  Most people who sing karaoke look at it as a way to have fun with friends, blow off steam, and belt out songs they love or hate.  People who do open mics are looking for approval from the audience.

So the result is people choose different songs for karaoke than they would if they were trying to impress people.

5 Songs I Would Karaoke If I Ever Got Around To Going Out To Karaoke:

Separate Ways (Worlds Apart) - Journey

The Final Countdown - Europe

You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman - Aretha Franklin

Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen

We Built This City - Starship

I also might choose any other song by Journey, plus most songs off the first Cars album, and Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'"