Daisuke Inue Inventor of karaoke Date of Birth: 10.05.1940 Country: Japan

1. The Inventor of Karaoke
2. A Biography of Daisuke Inoue

The Inventor of Karaoke

Thirty years ago, the inventor of karaoke didn't think about profit -- he simply wanted to simplify his life. When the young Japanese man, Daisuke Inoue, played drums in a band with his peers, he never imagined the important invention he would create. And when he came up with a machine that allowed people to sing various songs to electronic music by using a microphone, he didn't give much importance to his invention and didn't even bother to patent the technique. More than three decades later, the whole world knows what karaoke is, and many people have this useful device in their homes. However, Daisuke Inoue never received any income from selling his invention. Now a 62-year-old Japanese man, he owns an office in the suburbs of Osaka. There, this citizen with a hippie appearance (with long hair tied in a ponytail) trades another one of his inventions - a means of exterminating cockroaches in karaoke machines, as Inoue discovered that in 80 percent of cases, the "home singing machine" breaks down because these unpleasant insects infest it.

A Biography of Daisuke Inoue

Daisuke Inoue invented karaoke in 1971 specifically for his band's performances at private parties, where intoxicated guests often wanted to sing a song themselves. The primitive karaoke allowed musicians to take a break instead of struggling to keep up with the amateur singer. The musicians founded a company called "Crescendo" and started selling the primitive karaoke for 100 yen each (less than a dollar). Three years later, karaoke became so popular that large companies took advantage of this unpatented idea and started producing their own machines. The karaoke boom began. The small company "Crescendo" tried to fight against the cunning industrial giants, but in 1987, when laser discs appeared, Inoue and his comrades realized that they had lost. While the world didn't completely overlook this Japanese man - Time magazine even named him one of the most influential people in Asia, alongside Mahatma Gandhi and Mao Zedong - the success didn't continue. Daisuke Inoue accepts his unrealized triumph and lost immeasurable wealth stoically. As for karaoke, he remains indifferent, just as he was 30 years ago. He says that he has only sung along with his own invention four or five times in his life. "Sometimes," says the Japanese man, "I look at modern karaoke and think, 'Oh, what amazing technology.' But personally, it no longer has any relevance to me."