Buzz
On Wednesday evening, Team Floss took to karaoke. After Mangesh’s rendition of 'I Believe I Can Fly,' Jessanne impressed us with a Madonna impersonation while belting out 'Like a Prayer.' Winslow and I got into the spirit by performing The Lonely Island’s 'I’m On A Boat.' As the night went on, we couldn’t help but ask ourselves—how did karaoke become such a global craze?
Despite what some may think, karaoke doesn’t mean 'tone deaf' in Japanese. The word is a blend of the Japanese term kara, meaning 'empty,' and oke, a shortened version of okesutora, meaning 'orchestra.' The first karaoke machines were invented by Daisuke Inoue in 1971. Inoue, a drummer in a Kobe-based band, used to play for bar patrons who wanted to sing. He shared with a reporter from The Guardian that he wasn’t a skilled musician, so he designed a machine to play music for him when he wasn’t up for it. He built 11 machines and leased them to local businesses.
By the 1980s, karaoke had become a nationwide phenomenon in Japan. According to Forbes, the first karaoke bar in the United States opened in Los Angeles in 1982. By 2003, the inaugural Karaoke World Championships took place with participants from seven different countries, marking karaoke's rise to global popularity.
Inoue never patented the karaoke machine and, according to NPR, barely made any profit from his invention. 'I could have patented it, but at the time, I had no idea,' he told The Guardian. 'I just wanted to help some local artists in a local band so they could do some business.' (A Filipino named Roberto del Rosario patented the Karaoke Sing Along System in 1975.) While Inoue may not have gained wealth from his invention, he earned recognition instead: in 1999, Time named him one of the most influential Asians of the century, and in 2004, he received the Ig Nobel Peace Prize for creating—according to the ceremony's host Marc Abrahams—'an entirely new way for people to learn to tolerate each other.'
During his acceptance speech, Inoue shared, 'One time I had a dream to teach people to sing, so I invented karaoke. I didn’t know it would become something so big. Now more than ever, I want to teach the world to sing, in perfect harmony.' He received the longest standing ovation in the history of the Ig Nobels.
