The various stories, myths and icons we have examined here have been inscribed in a number of chains of repetition. Some of them are interchangeable, like those of Marion and Susanna, Olympia and Carmen, or Joan of Arc, Beth, Ripley, Rebecca and Ann-Lee. The many versions that constitute these chains are characterized by their palimpsestic relationships both with their source or sources, and among themselves. Furthermore, the long tradition of these chains, which sometimes, as in the case of Joan of Arc, have roots in the Middle Ages, has endowed them with the status of a myth. The train of versions in the wake of the tale generates the charm of the déjà vu and obfuscates the distinction between source and version.

My discussion of the chains of Psycho, Carmen and Joan has been framed by two sets of questions. The first has to do with the act of repetition itself: What are the relations that exist, potentially, between “source” and version, as well as among the versions themselves? The second has to do with the specific text being repeated. What is the significance of the re-articulation of the same old story over and over again? These questions have, in the course of time, elicited different answers within the context of changing aesthetic and cultural norms. However, as we may conclude by now, these two aspects of repetition are intertwined. In this context I would like to identify here the karaoke spectacle as a metonym for a ritual in which – following Roman Jakobson's model of communication (1960) – both addresser and addressee are involved. Like the karaoke, successive versions involve a chain of performative acts. Each spectacle of karaoke suggests the rewriting of an already known “melody” while addresser and addressee replace each other. We may ask then, what is it that seduces both performers and audiences to consume more of the same specific melody?