Continuing our theme of Japanese words you didn’t know you knew, karaoke has to get a mention. How many times have you sung your heart out badly (but secretly thinking you sounded pretty fine) down the pub, at home with a karaoke box or games like Guitar Hero, or even in a dedicated karaoke venue in your city? Did you ever wonder where this whole slightly ridiculous but wonderful strain of invariably rather drunken entertainment came from?
Karaoke began its run at world domination in Tokyo. ‘Kara’ (the first two katakana symbols in the neon logo above) means ‘empty’ in Japanese and ‘oke’ (the second two symbols) is an abbreviation of orchestra. Empty Orchestra. You provide the vocals. A simple and obvious concept from where we sit, but it spurred a big step forward in technology as well as making a big splash in the Far East nightlife scene.
Back in the ‘70s, familiar Japanese brands like Pioneer and Yamaha developed technologies to help meh singers sound better, starting with simple reverb (roomy echo) effects. Japanese companies like Roland and Korg (which you could’ve sworn were European) were heavily involved in everything from vocoders – think Soundwave from the original Transformers or failing that, Daft Punk -and MIDI digital technology which could compress files down to a manageable size for Laserdiscs (remember those?)
By the end of the 80s, their home karaoke units could play backing tracks, display lyrics on a connected TV, and automatically alter the pitch or tempo of a song to match the singer’s voice. Upping the game, Brother Industries launched JOYSOUND in 1992. This remarkable audio tech innovation detects your voice then adds harmonies and octave voices in a way we still take for granted today at dedicated karaoke venues. So next time you’re singing your heart out at karaoke (or enduring someone singing out theirs), remember to thank the Japanese!