Boomtown Karaoke - Minneapolis, MN
Posted by: 
meralgia
N 44° 58.478 W 093° 13.624
15T E 482095 N 4980157
Boomtown Karaoke, located above Kumok's Hair Salon at 211 Oak St. S.E., has four rooms equipped with a $1,000 electronic device imported from Korea called Taijin.
Waymark Code: WM4EJD
Location: Minnesota, United States
Date Posted: 08/13/2008
Views: 160
They are open from 7 pm until as late as 4 am on Friday and Saturday nights and from 7 pm until 12 pm from Sunday through Saturday. The three small rooms (for $25/hour) hold up to 8 people, and their one big room (for $35/hour) holds up to 15 people. Call (612) 331-1260 for more information.
"Boomtown Karaoke is one of a few local businesses providing Taijin, and is taking advantage of an emerging national trend. The karaoke box trend is decades old in Asia but is just beginning to catch on in the United States, predominantly among Asian-American communities, karaoke experts said. Rooms open at 10 a.m. and teem with students on the weekends, mostly high school and college age, owner Kumok Wong said.
Wong said she updates the karaoke machines every three months with a $300 chip that adds the latest Top 100 from North American and Asian countries. According to enthusiasts' Web sites, the original karaoke craze was born approximately 23 years ago at a snack bar in Kobe City, Japan.
The first box appeared near Kansai, Japan, and was built from a converted freight train car. The box is so popular in parts of Asia that some countries even go so far as to credit the lyric display screens with improving literacy rates.
There are more than 50 Minneapolis nightclubs currently featuring karaoke. Do Re Mi Music Studio, attached to Hoban's, a Korean restaurant in Eagan, Minn., is the nearest box joint to Boomtown. Wong said a substantial number of University students were driving to the outer-ring suburbs every weekend, and that was one reason she decided to open another similar store here."
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