by Kevin Burton
Shigeichi Negishi, the inventor of the world’s first commercially-available karaoke machine, has died in Japan at age 100, according to National Public Radio.
Never knew the man, but boy has he filled up my Saturday nights.
You take a character from Billy Joel’s Piano Man who is“sure that I could be a movie star if I could get out of this place,” apply that sentiment to music, and there you have me and thousands of others, on karaoke night.
For some it’s just a time to have a fun outing with friends, whether they sing or not. Some of my lifelong friends are people I met at karaoke.
Multiplied thousands of restaurant/bars have karaoke one or more nights a week. It’s cheap entertainment and it brings in the customers.
“The global karaoke market size was valued at USD $4.87 trillion in 2021 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 2.42 percent during the forecast period, reaching $5.62 trillion by 2027,” according to a market research report by Precision Reports.
I mentioned Saturday night as karaoke night, but if you wanted to, you could find a karaoke place for each and every night of the week. The Facebook group Karaoke Wichita advertises sows local to me. I am sure a similar FB group exists for your area.
Negishi was one of a handful of inventors from Japan who brought karaoke to the masses, according to NPR.
And no, he couldn’t sing, at least according to one of his co-workers.
“Negishi was in his 40s when he came up with the idea of prototyping a mass-produced, coin-operated karaoke machine, branded ‘Sparko Box,’ after a colleague at the consumer electronics assembly business he ran in Tokyo criticized his singing,” NPR wrote.
“Until the Sparko Box came along in 1967, karaoke-like activities involved the use of backing tracks provided by live bands or instrumental recordings.”
“By automating the sing-along, he earned the enmity of performers who saw his machine as a threat to their jobs,” wrote author Matt Alt on social media. Alt interviewed Negishi for his book, Pure Invention: How Japan Made the Modern World. “It’s an eerie precursor of the debate surrounding AI’s impact on artists today.”
“The Sparko Box employed eight-track cassette tapes of commercially available instrumental recordings, with lyrics provided in a paper booklet,” NPR wrote.
“Seeing the commercial potential of the device, Negishi eventually placed around 8,000 Sparko Boxes at various locations across Japan, including restaurants. The machine did not gain traction, however, and he exited the karaoke business in 1975, according to the Wall Street Journal.
He never secured a patent for his invention.
“Although Negishi was the first to create a karaoke machine, many people attribute the invention of karaoke to nightclub musician Daisuke Inoue, who independently invented his own karaoke machine in 1971. Inoue’s contribution was to create versions of pop-song backing tracks in keys that could suit a variety of amateur singers. (Three additional Japanese inventors created versions of karaoke machines in the late 1960s and early 1970s.)”
“Negishi was born on Nov. 29, 1923 in Tokyo. His father was a functionary who managed regional political elections. His mother owned a tobacco store,” NPR reported. “An intellectual child, he went on to study economics at Tokyo’s Hosei University.”
“He fought in the Japanese army during World War II and spent two years in a prison camp after Japan’s defeat in Singapore. Released in 1947, Negishi’s career in the electronics industry took off during the post-war business boom in Japan. After retiring at 70, he focused on his hobbies — basket-making, sculpting and, naturally, karaoke singing.”
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