Karaoke (Kah-rah-oh-kay) Somebody Really Invented it - by Boye Lafayette De Mente

Karaoke (kah-rah-oh-kay) has been one of Japan's most successful exports. How it was invented, and why it became so successful, first in Japan and then internationally, is an amazing story!

Tokyo, (PRWEB) April 20, 2005 -- Most people who have sung and heard karaoke probably believe it was something that grew of its own accord, like crab grass! But that is not the case. It was invented...by a guy who could not possible have dreamed that it would spread around the world like some kind of Asian flu.

Singing in Japan goes back to ancient times, when it became an integral part of Japanese culture. It began with shamans and priests chanting their ritual prayers to the gods

Then fishermen, boatmen, carpenters, geisha, samurai warriors, shoguns, cooks, you name it, got into the act. Everybody sang, in groups and individually, to enhance work camaraderie, for self-gratification, as well as to entertain others.

Virtually every category of personal and public activity had its own collection of songs. The practice of singing became such an important part of Japanese culture that it survived into modern times.

Still today, singing is a significant part of the business and social life of the Japanese. It is perfectly common for reserved, elderly businessmen and politicians to burst out in song at public events-something that generally surprises-and invokes envy-from their Western counterparts.

And it was because of this imperative that everyone sing-for both business and pleasure and to relieve stress and bond with co-workers and new friends-that Daisuke Inoue invented karaoke.

In 1970 Daisuke Inoue was a club musician who earned his keep by playing sing-along tunes in cabarets in Kobe, Japan. It was painfully obvious to Daisuke that many of his businessmen customers" had been so consumed by work that unlike other Japanese they had never had time to polish their singing skills.

This prompted Daisuke to tape a number of the more popular tunes (like Frank Sinatras I Did It My Way!"), changing the pitches to suit off-key singers, and making it possible for the cabaret customers to sing along with the taped tunes and not sound like screeching banshees.

Over the next several months, Daisuke integrated the singer friendly" tunes into a tape recorder that became the first karaoke (kah-rah-oh-kay) machine that played only accompaniments. Kara (kah-rah) means empty and oke (oh-kay) is the Japanese abbreviation of orchestra. In other words, empty orchestra."

In 1971 Daisuke made 12 karaoke machines and leased them to bars in Kobe. And as the saying goes, the rest is history...but not the kind of history most inventors dream of.

Following the incredible success of his first karaoke machines, Daisukes intuition and ingenuity failed him. He didnt patent the new device, and before you could say Dohshimashita ka? (doh-she-mah-ssh-tah kah?)-which you might translate as What the Hell happened!"-a whole stream of karaoke machines poured into Japans huge number of bars and cabarets.

The new device was so popular that thousands of new karaoke bars" were opened to take advantage of it. Hotels and other public buildings in the country opened karaoke rooms" for their guests and employees.

Major manufacturers got into the act, using the latest technology to continuously upgrade the quality of karaoke machines. By the late 1980s karaoke had spread around the world, and went on to become one of Japans most popular exports.

In 1999 Time magazine named Daisuke Inoue one of the 20 most influential Asians of the Century, along with Chinas Mao Tse-tung and Indias Gandhi. I dont remember the Time piece, but naming the inventor of the karaoke machine in the company of such luminaries was surely not a tongue-in-cheek thing.

In 2004 Harvard University students awarded Daiskuke one of their annual Ig Nobel Prizes for contributing to world piece though his invention...the Ig being short for ignoble, and the annual Ig Nobel Prize is a parody of the real Nobel Prize.

Daisuke was invited to Harvard to receive the award in person, and sang a song before an appreciative audience. He was awarded the Ig Noble Prize for Peace for the contributions his invention made to world harmony.

This belated recognition is all that Daisukes gets from his innovative invention. He could not compete with the big companies that jumped into manufacturing and marketing karaoke machines. His business failed. He now lives in Nishinomiya, just outside of Kobe, and sells rat repellant devices.

Some of the millions of people around the world who have had their peace and quiet disturbed by home karaoke singing may wish that Daisuke had come up with his rat repellant business first.

Boyé Lafayette De Mente is the author of more than 30 pioneer and provocative books on Japan, ranging from Japanese Etiquette & Ethics in Business and Japanese Secrets of Graceful Living to Mistress-Keeping in Japan. See his personal website phoenixbookspublishers.com.

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