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Karaoke logo: who invented it?

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Who invented it?

The question of who founded a product that is used worldwide is often controversial - just think of the telephone or the computer.

It's no different with karaoke.

At least they were able to quickly agree on the country of origin: somewhere in Japan, the concept of singing loud sounds to instrumental tracks was first commercialized.

But who was the clever mind behind it?

Internationally, the invention is mostly attributed to the former bar musician Daisuke Inoue - also on SPIEGEL.de.

In 2004 he was even awarded a Nobel Prize in the “Peace” category.

Ultimately, he “developed a completely new method of teaching people to tolerate each other.”

No matter how crooked the singing is.

In 1971, Inoue put together a cassette recorder, a small guitar amplifier and a microphone, put everything in a small red and white wooden box and fitted the whole thing with a coin slot.

He sold the devices in Kobe.

The name karaoke - in German: empty orchestra - already existed before: it simply stood for the singing of stage artists to a playback background.

The real inventor?

But four years earlier, in 1967, a car radio entrepreneur in Tokyo had the same idea.

Matt Alt, an American author of several books on Japanese pop culture, found the man while researching his book "Pure Invention: How Japan Made the Modern World."

His name also appears among the organizers of International Karaoke Day and in a timeline of the Japanese Association of Karaoke Machine Manufacturers: Shigeichi Negishi.

Accordingly, the invention had a private background: employees of the entrepreneur insulted the entrepreneur's singing, whereupon Negishi protested - he sounded much better with music.

He then had a prototype built in the company that manufactured car radios that was very close to the later product.

Singing with the Sparko Box

In a set with text sheets and lights that flashed to the music, Shigeichi Negishi offered the device in Japanese bars under the name “Sparko Box”.

They had previously paid significantly more money for traveling guitarists, and the Sparko speakers were significantly cheaper.

Negishi later claimed that 8,000 devices were sold in Japan.

But sales soon became too complicated for him.

In 1975 he left the karaoke business.

Shigeichi Negishi, Daisuke Inoue and other karaoke pioneers have one thing in common: none of them patented their invention.

In the “Wall Street Journal” author Matt Alt now reports the death of Shigeichi Negishi with reference to his daughter.

He didn't recover from a fall.

Negishi lived to be 100 years old.

Feb