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By Shannon Power
Pop Culture & Entertainment Reporter
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Shigeichi Negishi, the man who brought the world the wonderful art of karaoke, has died.
Context
The 100-year-old invented the sing-a-long concept back in 1967 and realized he could commercialize it when he found himself singing away as he worked at his Tokyo tech business.
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What We Know
Negishi passed away on January 26 after having a fall, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.
He founded his own electronic company, Nichiden Kogyo, in 1956 in Tokyo and would go on to find great success with it.
Negishi first came up with what was then called the "Sparko Box" when he was assembling 8-track tape decks for cars and thought about how much he liked singing along to the TV and radio but wanted to be able to hear his voice better while doing it.
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So, with the help of one of his workers, he wired up a microphone to a speaker and tape deck and sang along to Yoshio Kodama's hit "The Heartless Dream."
He recognized he was on to something and fine-tuned the design, eventually distributing it around Japan. Negishi wanted to call the machine karaoke because it was a Japanese colloquial term referring to a singer performing over a prerecorded backing track.
They eventually distributed 8,000 of his karaoke boxes around Japan before leaving the business in 1975. He never filed for a patent for his creation, but his daughter, Atsumi Takano, said he was happy to see people enjoying his invention all over the world.
"He felt a lot of pride in seeing his idea evolve into a culture of having fun through song around the world. To him, spending a hundred years surrounded by his family was reward enough," she told the Wall Street Journal.
Views
The Wall Street Journal's Matt Alt shared the news of Negishi's passing on X, formerly Twitter. He revealed Negishi's family had contacted him directly to share the news as it had not appeared in Japanese media.
"Farewell to another legend: Shigeichi Negishi, inventor of karaoke, has died age 100. By automating the sing-along, he earned the enmity of performers who saw his machine as a threat to their jobs. It's an eerie precursor of the debate surrounding AI's impact on artists today," Alt wrote.
Admirers paid tribute to Negishi on X.
"RIP to a legend, I am listening to your audiobook right now and really enjoyed learning about this!" @trevorbasset posted.
Update 03/15/24, 9:41 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
Update 03/18/24, 3:14 a.m. ET: This article was updated with a new image.
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