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‘Where honour and ridiculousness collide’: in praise of karaoke’s inventor, on his death at 100

Shigeichi Negishi’s invention invites us to cast off humility and take a shot at singing stardom. His legacy will be credited – and blamed – for us living out our popstar fantasies

Quibbles surround the origin story – Daisuke Inoue independently invented his own karaoke box in 1971, and the bar-karaoke tradition predates both – but Negishi, who won the race to make a commercially available machine, tends to get the credit. Last year, some friends and I succumbed to the tractor beam of a karaoke bar in a crowded east London basement, with a vigilant no-drinks-on-stage policy and catty drag queen hosts to enforce it. Whether you go in for a bit of fun or a Stars in Their Eyes throwdown, the role you inhabit is fundamentally one of mischief: kill your idols, amuse your friends and banish all hope of sparking romance in the immediate vicinity.

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