The '70s Invention That Absolutely Transformed Music Into A Collective Experience

Everyone has their pet karaoke track. From the secret ringer with powerful pipes and seven years of opera training to the most tone-deaf warbler in the bar, each of us has the one song they think they can sing (or at least deliver), perhaps aided by one too many Chardonnays, that really lets us bare our soul and charm an audience. Most people are wrong about this, but nevertheless, karaoke remains a popular entertainment/hazing activity that lets would-be singers connect with their favorite jams on an intimate, if sometimes off-key, level.

Like many inventions, karaoke took a basic human activity, singing together, and made it fancier and louder. Credited to Daisuke Inoue, a Japanese session musician who made a portable track for a regular to belt along to, in the 50 years since its invention, karaoke has become a worldwide phenomenon, joining "sushi" as one of the Japanese words nearly everyone in the world knows. 

As the story goes, in 1970 Inoue worked in a bar in Kobe working as a sort of proto-karaoke musician, drumming as one of a set of backing musicians who would support drinkers who wanted to sing. Inoue's forgiving musicianship (he couldn't read music, so he'd just follow the singer wherever he went across keys and time signatures) made him a favorite. When one of his regulars wanted Inoue to come with him on a work trip so he could sing for his colleagues, Inoue couldn't get away, but he provided a tape. The pleased client paid up and an idea was born.

Inoue and his friends rigged up a series of machines to provide backing tracks and licensed them across Kobe, Osaka, and Tokyo. He neglected to patent the invention, however, so a great deal of the credit and money went to Philippine inventor Roberto del Rosario, who patented his own device in 1975. And today, the Philippines is one of the most karaoke-mad countries in the world, a place where singing Frank Sinatra's "My Way" can be a death sentence. But good things come from it too, like Journey plucking a new lead singer, Arnel Pineda, from among the archipelago's many, many crooners in 2007.