I always knew karaoke was a menace

Karaoke feud in Liverpool ends in blood-spattered street sword fight.

Seoul music: Korea bails out its music industry

In news which will make RIAA bosses grind their teeth with jealous frustration, South Korea is bailing out its music industry:

The Culture, Sports and Tourism Ministry said it would create a Korean version of the US Billboard Charts and a K-pop award evoking the Grammys in a bid to "globalise" the country's pop music.

Oh, yes. Hold an event a bit like the Grammys. That'll get everyone's attention worldwide. Or at least locally. They can have Kelly Osbourne to present it, if they like.

The ministry will also support 35,000 noraebangs -- karaoke bars without alcohol -- across the country by providing karaoke equipment.

State-sponsored karaoke. That's got to be the way ahead, right?

Although, um, is it going to help sell music if you encourage everyone to go down the karaoke bar and sing for themselves?

Music games: Passing trend rather than a revolution

More solid numbers confirming that the attraction of pressing buttons to pretend to play guitar is waning from Variety:

Fall's highly anticipated "Rock Band 2" and "Guitar Hero: World Tour" have sold well below expectations, trailing their 2007 editions by significant margins. Activision's "World Tour" has thus far sold 1.5 million units domestically, an impressive number compared to most games, but down 55% from "Guitar Hero III," which launched on the exact same day last year. MTV's "Rock Band 2" has moved only 809,000 copies.

It makes album sales seem as healthy as Gillian McKeith on a detox diet, doesn't it? And this is the top end:

The past few months have also seen a number of competitors for "Guitar Hero's" throne arise, including Disney's "Ultimate Band," Konami's "Rock Revolution" and Nintendo's "Wii Music," all of which have seen soft to disastrous sales.

Oh, dear. Music games are still the largest segment of the games market - but there are a lot of segments, and music only represents 16% of games sold. And the figures aren't going in the direction you'd hope for if you saw this a glistening new revenue stream.

It's a toss-up as to if the market was killed because it was swamped with too many, too similar games in too short a period, or if there was only ever going to be a spike-market until the novelty wore off.

Can anyone find a spark to reignite that novelty factor?

Funny you should ask. Taking time off from saving Eurovision, Andrew Lloyd-Webber is planning to try and revive music games with a simple recipe. Show tunes, show tunes, nothing but show tunes:

The shows, which also include Joseph and Cats, may seem like strange fodder for games, but the group says two industry shifts have prompted its interest - the emergence of more female gamers in the traditionally male-dominated game consumer demographic and the big popularity of singing- and music-based titles like Playstation’s Singstar and Xbox’s Lips. Guitar Hero maker Harmonix’s forthcoming Beatles performance game also shows how music brands can be translated in to play.

The first Lloyd-Webber titles will let players sing along as characters in the composer’s shows and could involve elements of “audition”, just like in his BBC shows I’d Do Anything and How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? and last year’s Lloyd-Webber-themed episode of American Idol.

A music track you sing along the words to? Why hasn't anyone thought of this before? It could be a whole genre all of its own. And you know what? I could see that going down well in Japan.

Who owns Guitar Hero?

Activision's Guitar Hero, a game where you can pretend like you're playing guitar in the same way that a karaoke machine can make you pretend you're actually a singer, has just been hit by a lawsuit from Gibson. Apparently, Gibson filed a patent back in 1999 claiming to have invented a way of playing guitar that wasn't actually playing guitars, but would be enough like the experience to persuade people to hand over large sums of cash:

A copy of Gibson's patent included in the court filing showed a method for simulating a live performance using a musical instrument, a 3D headset with stereo speakers, and a pre-recorded concert.

"Based on our preliminary analysis, the 'Guitar Hero' software (including any expansion packs) and the guitar controller provided by Activision being used as a musical instrument (packaged with the software or sold standalone) are covered by the ... patent," Gibson's law firm said in its January 7 letter. "Gibson requests that Activision obtain a license under Gibson's ... patent or halt sales of any version of the 'Guitar Hero' game software."

We're not sure Gibson should have been allowed the patent anyway - didn't Fisher Price have a plastic guitar-shaped toy with buttons you could press to make noise on the market about two decades ago?

North Korea: Not all bad, then

Of course, we realise that the North Korea ban on karaoke is actually a worrying sign of an already-isolated people being taken further from the rest of the world and not a law passed on the basis of artistic merit.

On the other hand: a nation without a single karaoke bar. Makes the smoking ban look like we have a lack of ambition, doesn't it?