Interview with Michelle, March 4, 2007

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Interview with Michelle Maga

Tape counter begins at 360

               Motivations

390

Melaena: So what got you hooked?

Michelle: I do love singing. Always have. And once I got over the shyness of singing in public, on my own, it’s different than singing in a chorus with the church.

Melaena: Was that weird singing in public?

Michelle: A little bit, yeah. As much as I like attention I don’t like to be reaching for it. But I love music, I always have. I was in band in highschool, I still play and sing a little bit, I compose a little bit of music. So I’ve always loved music, so to be actually up and singing with a real microphone, with real music, is a lot different than singing to the radio. It feels good, physically. I love the way it feels in my throat, and in my mouth. And emotionally. I like to say it’s my form of spirituality. Cause that’s really the kind of feelings I get when I sing a lot of the time.

Melaena: Okay. So you find it’s very fulfilling.

Michelle: Oh, definitely. It doesn’t even matter if anybody applauds; it’s very personal. It’s great when people applaud, but it’s very personal. It’s about me, not them.

            Motivations

Melaena: Right. I understand. So… the role of the audience… I guess we just touched on that. If there was nobody here, or if you had a karaoke machine at home, would you do that?

Michelle: Um, I wouldn’t take the time out at home. There’s too many other distractions, too many other things that, you know I should be doing this, and I should be doing that. I am trying to put together a disc at home for my mom. She’s expecting to go into the hospital for some surgery at some point in the future, and I’d like to have a disc for her of some songs.

But other than that, it’s an excuse to get out. Well, it’s the only excuse that gets me into the bar, because I’m not a bar person, but the equipment that you get in a bar, and the sound in a bar, is much better than you’ll ever… unless you have the money to put an actual sound room, buy all the equipment, in your own home, you don’t get the same quality.

And it’s about that quality of sound. It’s more than just singing. It’s being able to hear it in that quality sound, quality background.

Um, it’s sometimes a little awkward if nobody’s around in the bar, because you know, it’s like… Okay, you know… It’s not that I’m so full of myself that I’m standing here even though nobody’s listening, but…


         Who is the Audience? 

Melaena: (laughs) So who’s your audience, then? When you’re singing?

Michelle: Well, I like to know that everybody else is appreciating what I’m singing, and it’s always better when they do… but really, my real audience is myself.

         Song Selection

455

Melaena: So when you’re picking the songs, how do you pick them?

Michelle: Based on what my mood is, a little bit with what other people are singing. I know this particular location, a lot of the people here aren’t big country fans, so I don’t sing a lot of country here. And yet there’s another place where they sing so much country I don’t feel like singing country.

Melaena: What place is that?

Michelle: Borderline.

Melaena: Borderline.

Michelle: Borderline. They have karaoke three nights a week there.


                Motivations

492

Melaena: So when you go up there with the microphone, what’s the goal in your head?

Michelle: Um… the goal in my head is to not sing off key. I don’t intend to sing perfect, the way the original artist did it, that’s never my goal, although I like to get close the first time or two I try. But basically, the first goal is not to be off key. Because that does happen. Um… to play with it, to make it a little bit different. I like doing that. My best songs are those that I’ve put my own touch on.

Melaena: How do you do that?

Michelle: Um, just singing it a little bit different, stressing different verses or different lines in the song, playing with the melody a little bit, or, you know, giving it little extras here and there.

               Motivations

526

Melaena: Is there anything you don’t like about karaoke?

Michelle: That… pretty much you can only find it in bars.

Melaena: Okay.

Michelle: I am not a bar person. I do social drink, but I… I don’t care for drunks, and dealing with drunks, and especially drunks that hit on you. But I understand too that a lot of people have to drink to feel comfortable, and… I’m not one of those people, but… yeah.

Melaena: So where would you put karaoke, if not in a bar?

Michelle: I don’t know that there really is another option.

Melaena: But if you could.

Michelle: If I could. I know like Second Cup and Starbucks sometimes play music… sometimes have live artists in, so perhaps they could have karaoke instead… um… you know, I could see community leagues doing a karaoke night once a month, or something like that. I don’t know if there are too many alternatives. I’ve known a couple different places where they’ve had outdoor parties and they set up karaoke, but they get rather crowded.

              Star Search Shows

556

Melaena: What about the influence of the American star search shows, like American Idol?

Michelle: Um… I don’t watch them! I’m sure it’s there, it affects a lot of people. I think in a big way, with the karaoke contests. I think they’ve been around a little bit longer than the idol shows, but, uh, it… I think we’re seeing more of them, of the contests, because of them. They’ll name it, you know “Karoake Idol”, “Rosario’s Idol”, you know. Kind of play off to draw people in.

But I think the idol shows probably also give people a little more courage, to at least go to karaoke [unintelligible]. I think for the most part, though, people who go karaoke recognize that they’re just doing this for fun. They don’t expect to win any contests, they don’t expect to be discovered someday… I’m sure that’s a little fantasy in everybody’s mind—I mean it is in mine even though it’s not a big part of my life—but I think everybody who comes to karaoke really realizes that that’s not the case.

             Do Men or Women sing more? 

593

Melaena: Have you ever noticed—sorry, just keeping an eye on the tape—if there’s more men than women singing, or more women than men?

Michelle: Oh, usually more women.

Melaena: Why do you think that is?

Michelle: Because women are more social creatures. I think that has the biggest thing to do with it. Women aren’t as afraid to lay it on the line as men are, when it comes to their pride. It takes a lot of a certain kind of courage to get up there and look like a fool. Because that’s your biggest fear, is you’re going to get up there and you’re going to blow it and you’re going to look like a few.

                 Performative Gender Crossing

611

Melaena: What about singing… do you ever sing songs by male artists?

Michelle: Oh yeah, all the time.

Melaena: Do you notice… what about men singing songs by female artists?

Michelle: Not so much.

Melaena: Not so much.

Michelle: I have seen a couple, but not so much.

Melaena: Why is that, do you think?

Michelle: Um… because it’s easier for women to fight for equality and don the male side of the picture than it is for the males to take on a female role. I think a lot of it comes from the fact that we still live in a patriarchal society and although we’re trying to equalize that, men, however subconsciously or consciously, recognize that the male role has the most power.

And so to sing a female song, would, in some ways, say, [unintelligible] [this part of the tape had too much background noise to be audible, but from what I can remember of the interview, Michelle says it would be like a voluntary giving up of societal power]

And, it’s easier for a woman to get into a man’s range than it is for a man to get into a woman’s range.