The Karaoke Sing Along System was invented by Roberto del Rosario, the president of the Trebel Music Corporation in 1975. Despite some controversies on who first invented the karaoke machine, it was del Rosario who first registered the patent of the Karaoke machine.
The first karaoke machine was plainly audio with the vocals removed thus the term “Minus-One”. The singer using a microphone will then be able to sing along with the melody of the song.
The karaoke was then developed to include vdeos which was called as Karaoke TV (KTV) or Videoke which became a fad. Video tapes such as Betamax and VHS tapes were then popularized and became a good alternative to the Sing Along system. Filipinos then preferred the Videoke.
Fast forward, Video CD and DVD Videoke were made avaible together with video disc players having a full featured videoke system with the integration of microphone inputs with audio effects such as echo or more technically termed as reverberation effect.
The ingenuity of the Filipino inventor did not end there. A microphone called Magic Sing has a 2500 built-in songs and video capable was invented. This is now the latest gadget that Filipinos are using.
Videoke singing became a part of Filipino culture that in every gathering, there is always a videoke singing involved. Even foreigners that I have met who went to Filipino parties or gathering tell that the party is not complete without videoke singing.
By nature, Filipinos are fun of singing (I did not say good singers) but majority have good voices that they can actually win easily even in international competitions. Thanks to the constant practice in videoke machines.
Videoke, I can say is a unique Filipino culture.
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