I love  Karaoke because its used by recording engineers to refer to an instrumental version of a recording
I see, I've enjoyed singing karaoke myself
yea and in 1961, NBC carried a karaoke like series called sing along with Mitch where lyrics were superimposed on the screen for home audience participation
Wow, i didn't know it went back that far
yea but the different between sing alone and karaoke is the absence of the lead vocalist 
I see, are there any other differences?
. The primary difference between Karaoke and sing-along songs is the absence of the lead vocalist.
Sing-alongs (present since the beginning of singing) fundamentally changed with the introduction of new technology. In the late 1960s and into the 1970s, stored audible materials began to dominate the music recording industry and revolutionized the portability and ease of use of band and instrumental music by musicians and entertainers as the demand for entertainers increased globally. This may have been attributable to the introduction of music cassette tapes, technology that arose
In several Asian countries such as China, Cambodia or the Philippines, a karaoke box is called a KTV. The global karaoke market has been estimated to be worth nearly $10 billion.
History.
History 1960s: Development of audio-visual-recording devices.
From 1961–1966, the American TV network NBC carried a karaoke-like series, "Sing Along with Mitch", featuring host Mitch Miller and a chorus, which superimposed the lyrics to their songs near the bottom of the TV screen for home audience participation