A Brief History of Karaoke: From Tokyo to Turku
If you’ve spent any time in an entertainment district almost anywhere in the world, you’ve likely stumbled into a karaoke bar. Maybe you seized the moment and grabbed the mic yourself or maybe you just listened as a tipsy tourist in pristine cowboy boots warbled their way through “Friends In Low Places,” wondering to yourself how anyone ever came up with the concept of karaoke.
Over the last 53 years, karaoke has become a globally beloved pastime. Every night, singers take the stage in karaoke bars from Tokyo to Turku to Toronto. So how did this hobby with a decidedly Japanese name become a worldwide hit? The answer is more complicated than you might guess.
Who Invented Karaoke?
New technology rarely evolves in a vacuum and karaoke is no exception. People have been singing along with recorded music and videos of lyrics for a century. The earliest ancestor of karaoke is likely the series of short animations created by American Mark Fleischer in 1924. Fleischer pioneered the “follow the bouncing ball” technique in his Ko-Ko Song Car-Tunes series and further popularized it in his 1930 Screen Songs shorts. Theatergoers would sing along with popular songs and musicians of the day as a bouncing ball guided through the on-screen lyrics.
Mitch Miller’s musical variety show, Sing Along With Mitch, is more frequently credited as an early precursor to karaoke as we know it. Miller’s show, which aired on American television from 1961 to 1964, featured a live orchestra performing popular songs while a bouncing ball guided viewers through the lyrics scrolling across the screen.
Of course, while both Sing Along with Mitch and Screen Songs bear a strong resemblance to the hobby, they’re not what we currently think of as karaoke. There are at least twelve people who independently created technology we’d now think of as karaoke but we’ll be focusing on three men: Shigeichi Negishi, Daisuke Inoue, and Roberto del Rosario.
Shigeichi Neigishi was a Japanese engineer who ran a car stereo assembly company in Tokyo. In 1967 he created the Sparko Box by adding mixing and recording capabilities - and a coin slot - to an 8-track stereo. While his attempts to distribute his new invention to bars were often thwarted by angry live musicians, the devices became popular at love hotels.
Four years later in Kobe, Japan, musician Daisuke Inoue created the 8 Juke. The 8 Juke was very similar to the Sparko Box, down to its car stereo ancestry, but had an added function that remains a feature of karaoke machines through to the present: reverb.
Reverb is the reason you feel like you sound better singing in the shower. The echoes smooth over many imperfections in our vocal performances and can help nervous singers feel more confident. Inoue also leveraged his skills as a musician to record karaoke tapes in multiple keys that were easier for amateur singers to master.
Karaoke singing became popular at hostess clubs and bars in Kobe’s Sannomiya entertainment district. When JVC began producing mass-producing a karaoke machine, the pastime spread throughout Japan.
In 1975, Filipino inventor and entrepreneur Roberto del Rosario created his own karaoke machine, the Sing Along System (SAS). The SAS had one thing Negishi and Inoue’s creations did not: a patent. Despite Daisuke Inoue frequently being credited as the inventor of karaoke, he did not profit from his creation. As the sole patent holder, del Rosario profited from his invention for the rest of his life.
While they weren’t able to cash in on their karaoke machines, Negishi and Inoue’s stories still have happy endings. Inoue found success in the karaoke industry first by licensing music and then by creating (patented) karaoke machine cleaning products. Negishi, meanwhile, returned to a successful career assembling electronics.
The invention of the video cassette and LaserDisc allowed the creation of karaoke machines that played videos of lyrics along with instrumental recordings. Up until this point, singers had to provide the lyrics themselves, either by bringing their own lyrics sheet or memorizing their favorite songs. LaserDiscs were soon replaced by the CD+G (CD+Graphics) format, a precursor the the more familiar DVD format.
Up until 1985, karaoke repertoire was limited to enka, traditional ballads that had waned in popularity with younger singers by the 1980s. In 1985, the phenomenal success of Bruce Springsteen in Japan resulted in Born in the U.S.A. becoming the first pop-rock album to be fully licensed for karaoke.
What’s In a Name?
The term karaoke is a portmanteau of two Japanese words: kara, meaning “empty,” and ōketsutora, meaning “orchestra.” While we now associate the word with sing-along devices, karaoke originally had a different meaning.
In 1956, a musicians strike left the orchestra pit at the Takarazuka Revue Theatre empty. Management commissioned instrumental recordings for the vocalists and actors to perform over. The show went on despite the strike and karaoke came to refer to pre-recorded instrumental tapes used by professional singers.
Early karaoke machines used tapes that were essentially the same as those first instrumental recordings: instrumental renditions of songs for a vocalist to perform over. Daisuke Inoue is often credited with first applying the term to his invention and it’s not hard to see why it stuck. Even today, where karaoke tracks usually include lyrics, backing vocals, and a gentle melody guide, singers are still essentially performing with an empty orchestra just as the performers at the Takarazuka Revue Theatre did nearly 70 years ago.
Karaoke Across the Globe
Since its origins in Japan, karaoke has become a worldwide sensation. Starting in the 1980s, karaoke began to spread across the world, often in cities that hosted a large number of traveling Japanese business people. Dimples, the first karaoke bar in North America, opened in Los Angeles, California in 1982 and hosted nightly karaoke until it closed in 2015. In 2003, Finland held the first annual Karaoke World Championships. Today, contestants from over 40 countries compete every year for the coveted title of Karaoke World Champion along with cash and other prizes.
While the core of the karaoke experience - singing over an instrumental track - remains the same, what a karaoke night actually looks like is very different depending on whether you’re in Japan or the U.S. Here in Nashville, singers have their pick of karaoke spots, from dive to diva and from live accompaniment to a classic JVC portable machine. Most karaoke venues are also bars, serving up liquid courage to nervous singers. Performances are pretty public. At the Lipstick Lounge, one of our favorite karaoke spots, the small stage is right next to the door, visible through the front windows, and looks out over the entire bar. Even with an audience as supportive as the patrons at the Lipstick Lounge, this very public performance setup can be intimidating for many potential karaoke singers.
In contrast, Japan has moved towards a more intimate singing experience. Most karaoke bars in Japan consist of individual, mostly soundproofed rooms. The booths maintain the disco vibes of the clubs and bars where karaoke first took off, but the audience is limited to the people the singer has invited to share their room - or no one at all! Patrons can order snacks to their booth and many venues provide hand percussion to shake or hit along with the music. With so many singers reluctant to perform in front of a crowd, it’s easy to see why these private rooms became the norm in Japan.
And so the karaoke evolution continues. For those who want to sing karaoke but who are still feeling too nervous to sing in front of anyone there’s always the online karaoke experience. Websites such as Smule with a whopping 10 million songs, Karafun where you can choose from over 58,000 songs, and Sing King where over 11 million members worldwide enjoy karaoke competitions and an app to bring thousands of songs to your smartphone to karaoke anytime. Zelda and her singing students often use Karafun and Sing King karaoke songs to make learning to confidently sing karaoke even more fun in coaching sessions.
Ready to rock your next karaoke night? Give us a call!
From rowdy Nashville bars to private booths in Kobe entertainment centers, it’s easy to see why karaoke has become a worldwide sensation, and its popularity doesn’t appear to be waning anytime soon. If you’re ready to seize the mic, reach out and schedule a lesson. Whether you want to build your ideal karaoke repertoire, deepen your singing skills, or develop the confidence to rock your first karaoke night; we’re here to help you love your voice.
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