When you think about it, the Karaoke machine is a simple invention. Basically two existing inventions, the tape deck and the microphone, were stuck together, add some lyrics on a screen and BOOM, you have Karaoke. 

Anyone could have thought of it. And indeed Karaoke machines were independently invented five times in a row between 1967 and 1972…

But the funny thing is that ALL FIVE times are in Japan.

Why was Japan so desperate to invent the Karaoke machine in the late sixties? Who was the first? And what was the first ever Karaoke song?

Matt Alt, the Author of Pure Invention, How Japan’s Pop Culture Conquered the World is joining Patented today to tell the story of one of Japan’s most iconic inventions; Karaoke. 

Edited by Alex Carlon, Produced by Freddy Chick & Alex Carlon. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.

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