Karaoke

Karaoke is a popular sing-along form of entertainment in which an amateur singer sings while following the words of a song on a television screen. Typically, the singer has a microphone and the main lyrics of a well-known popular song are dropped, so only the amateur singer can be heard. The singer is guided by lyrics on the screen with a moving symbol or video images. Karaoke originated in Japan in the 1970s, although it has quickly spread around the world as a popular pastime at restaurants, hotels, bars, and home dinner parties. Throughout Japan's history and culture, it was common to provide musical entertainment when entertaining guests in the home. [Page 1287]The development of karaoke caught on quickly in Japan for this reason.

Karaoke can be traced back to the 1970s Japanese singer Daisuke Inoue. Many people wanted to sing along to his songs, so Daisuke made a sing-along tape recorder that would play his music when money was deposited. Although originally regarded as expensive, the fad soon caught on in hotels and bars, which were referred to as “Karaoke Boxes.” Karaoke machines soon began spreading throughout southeast Asia, and eventually the world. In 2004, Daisuke was awarded the Ig Nobel Peace Prize, a parody of the Nobel Peace Prize, awarded to unsuspecting individuals for trivial scientific research, for inventing the karaoke machine. It was said to have provided “an entirely new way for people to learn to tolerate each other.”

While Daisuke was forging ahead with his creation, a Filipino inventor by the name of Roberto del Rosario was also coining a music machine accompanied by vocals in the early 1970s. By 1974, Del Rosario had invented the Sing Along System (SAS), which, in addition to having a microphone and amplifier, could manipulate and add effects to the singer's voice such as reverberation, which causes a voice to echo. Del Rosario's machines did not have a visuals screen for lyrics to be displayed, but they often came with song-books. As the inventor continued to outsource his machines to manufacturers in Japan, he soon saw similar machines being created and entered legal battles for patent rights. He won against Janito Corporation, and in 1985, was awarded the Gold Medal for Best Inventor by the World Intellectual Property Organization.

In the West, the stage was already set for a karaoke invasion. The idea of singing along to music was already a popular one with the 1960s television series, Sing Along With Mitch. At the time, the network would superimpose song lyrics to the bottom of the viewers’ screen for them to sing along. By the 1990s, karaoke had made its way to the United States, and the art of the singing phenomenon was brought to a new level. The devices began to sell more in Western markets once they were advertised as not solely karaoke system but also home theater systems that could amplify and enhance television viewing. Cassette tapes have long been replaced by CDs, DVDs, and interactive video games. A popular game played on home machines is Karaoke Roulette, in which vocalists do not know what popular song will come up next that they must perform.

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