Armed with a keen eye and a terrible singing voice, writer Brian Raftery sets out across the globe, tracing karaoke's evolution from cult fad to multi-million dollar phenomenon. In Japan, he meets Daisuke Inoue, the godfather of karaoke; in Thailand, he follows a group of Americans hoping to win the Karaoke World Championships; and in New York City, he hangs out backstage with the world's longest-running heavy-metal karaoke band. Along the way, Raftery chronicles his own time as an obsessive karaoke fan, recalling a life's worth of noisy relationships and poor song choices, and analyzing the karaoke-bar merits of such artists as Prince, Bob Dylan and Fugazi.

Part cultural history, part memoir, Don't Stop Believin': How Karaoke Conquered the World and Changed My Life is a hilarious and densely reported look at the liberating effects of a good sing-along.

“You can taste [Raftery’s] addiction. His passion is, like the collective yearning to sing Total Eclipse of the Heart, contagious.”

"Delves into the tangled history of the art form (and yes, it is an art form), from its rocky start in 1970s Japan to its embrace by everyone from trendy indie rock bands to Midwestern brial parties...A love letter to a hobby that became an obsession."

Wired

"Reminds us that belting out tunes with all your heart can be fun, wrenching, and ultimately very satisfying."

LibraryJournal.com, 12/19/08

"This book is for people who take karaoke seriously and know just the right songs to sing. fans of pop culture and the writing of Chuck Klosterman will enjoy Raftery's style. highly recommended for popular collections in all public libraries."

"[The] definitive book on Karaoke...Hilarious and just plain fun to read...I liked this book an awful lot. if you've got an inner-Karaoke guy in you dying to be let loose, chances are you will like it, too. if not, it still makes a reat gift for that friend of yours prone to singing badly at parties and other forms of lampshade wearing fun."

Blogcritics.org, 12/21/08

“The author’s obsession [is] delineated in colorful, mostly engaging prose…Interspersed with [Raftery’s] personal story is a loose-limbed, entertaining history…Lively, amusing, irreverent and often scattershot—in other words, perfect bathroom reading material.”

“Raftery vividly evokes the boozy, semimelodic pathos that makes karaoke a profound group-bonding rite, while acknowledging—nay, toasting—its tackiness. The result is an entertaining, exuberant homage that’s anything but off-key.”

“As much memoir as it is history, and the story it tells—of how one pudgy, loveless music journalist learned to stop worrying and love the rush of performing—is an endearing one…Karaoke itself may not be to everyone's liking, but this bite-size book is a treat, like hearing a surprisingly competent singer offer her take on Milli Vanilli’s ‘Blame It on the Rain.’”

Forbes.com, 2/17/09

“Raftery, the most obsessive karaoke fan you could imagine, perfectly captures this exhibitionist thrill in his entertaining history of the art…The book is an elegy for his 20s, a fascinating look at the underbelly of the music business, a meditation on the nature of authenticity and a quest for the perfect karaoke song…In an age of digital piracy and ‘Guitar Hero,’ the future of karaoke is uncertain, but this rollicking and surprisingly informative account of a life lived with microphone in hand is a fitting ode to its joyful tackiness.”

Salt Lake Underground, 2/09

“Raftery’s text does the culture justice like no other.”