'My way': Karaoke and the performance of gender, ethnicity, and class

I am interested in finding out what the performance of karaoke might reveal about the construction of identity. What do we know, on a microscopic level, about the construction of cultural categories of identity such as gender, ethnicity, and class? Much has been written in the fields of critical theory and critical studies about "constructions," and especially about the construction of "identity," but not much has been written about how exactly the constructions are, for lack of a better term, constructed.;Through this study of karaoke, I hope to show how the missing ingredient in this discourse up to this point is a deeper understanding of performance. I hope to show how there are performances taking place all around us, in everyday life, that comprise the process through which "constructions" such as identity are constructed, or, using what I feel is a more descriptive term, the process through which they are performed. In this way, a study of karaoke becomes a way to study at the "ground level," so to speak, a kind of microscopic analysis of how categories of identity are constructed through performances.;Part I of the dissertation contains an introduction to the topic of karaoke and the methods that I employed in my research. Part I includes "Chapter 1: History" and "Chapter 2: Methodology." Part II of this project is comprised of material related to the performance of identity that I derived from my ethnographic research. Part II includes "Chapter 3: Gender," "Chapter 4: Ethnicity," and "Chapter 5: Class.";I hypothesize that singing karaoke is an example of a performance of agency; however, I conclude that the enactment of agency depends on the ability for an individual to connect with and motivate members of the community. Although karaoke performance begins with the act of an individual, it would not be meaningful without the existence of an audience. Thus, the performance of karaoke in America is not just about satisfying individual desires. Karaoke is about building a community.