Singstar for PlayStation brings out idol within

By RICHARD PAMATATAU

There's nothing like a shot of liquor-inspired karaoke to separate the show-offs from the shockers, and if Sony's Singstar game for PlayStation hits the right note, more Kiwis will get in touch with their inner idol.

Launched last week, Singstar is a game for PlayStation 2 which takes karaoke - traditionally a singalong system involving microphones, lyrics and music - and elevates it to high-tech status by introducing elements to make it really competitive.

Think you're the next Sophie Ellis Bexter?

Then plug yourself into this system which will analyse your pitch, rhythm, tone and timing and at the end of the performance will let you know if the song is you or Murder on the Dance Floor.

The system also plays the original artist video along with the track so the performers are able to mimic movement as well.

For Sony, too, it's a chance to hit back at Microsoft's Xbox equivalent, called Music Mixer, which offers slightly more features by letting players not only sing but also mix songs, enhance them and share content over PCs. Music Mixer has been on the shelves for some time.

Paulina Bozek, the London producer of Singstar for London Studio, said the game propelled the PlayStation into a whole new market.

People saw it as an action game device with guns and quests, said Bozek, but Singstar turned it into a very human device that let people explore their performance side as singers.

A self-confessed club and karaoke chick, Bozek said her nights in front of the microphone had shown her that people of either gender loved to sing and the more they did the more they got hooked on it.


"I am not a great singer by any shot but I give it a go and it's major fun."

People who have Sony's Eyetoy, a camera device for PS2, can hook that up as well so they can create "instant videos" around them.


Bozek said there were plans to launch games that had more content and would be solely in a particular genre.

While add-ons such as Singstar were designed to squeeze more life out of the PS2, the PSX, its successor, was already selling overseas and the PlayStation's third incarnation was being developed.

Sony has designed the software so people can sing in a number of categories ranging from easy through to "star" and it records and rates each performance.

One mode lets you pick up the mike and start singing, either alone or battling against a mate while "Pass the Mike" encourages duets and team competitions.

For those who missed out on New Zealand Idol, Singstar lets them follow their dream, from singing in the program's on-disk bedroom to performing in a sold-out concert.

Bozek said people could use the software to train themselves to sing better.

Kirsten Zemke-White, lecturer in ethno musicology at Auckland University's anthropology department, said Sony had finally come up with a game she could win.

"Give me the microphone and I'll show them pitch and tone.

"When you know so many singers you have to let everyone have a go."

Zemke-White said this would bring a whole new value to the PlayStation proposal because it now was not just a device that let people shoot, kill and hunt.

This might be Sony's chance to tap into a new market of people who would demonstrate that pop music was not a passive product.

She said pop music invited consumers to be very active with it through dance and singing and this perhaps challenged the rock view that pop was plastic.

Singstar was also interesting because it showed that software developers were recognising other values in people that, of course, had a commercial value, and in effect created a commodity out of something people had been doing for ever - singing.

Ironically, said Zemke-White, as the places in which people have traditionally sung seem to be vanishing, whether a church, pub or folk club, it might be technology such as this that lets people know it is fantastic and human to sing.

Although the grunge and rock movement sneered at the notion of pop and even programmes such as New Zealand Idol because the songs were not original, it had to recognise that singing was about a lot of things other than performance.

"We communicate by singing."

A Singstar system was a way of getting people together in a whole different way which did not involve going to, for example, a karaoke bar when they wanted to sing a tune.

Zemke-White said she expected Singstar would be popular with teenage girls who were active participants in pop music, but as the company released more games with other content, it would capture new markets.

"Sons may find their mums edging them out for PlayStation time."