There are bars throughout out the world where you can now go for karaoke night and sing your heart out to the Beatles or a recent hit that's still on the radio. It's something that's enjoyed by college kids celebrating the weekend and getting out of their King West lofts to business people on a night out during an international conference. There are those that even compete with other singers to win everything from bar tabs to cash.

You likely know that karaoke is an interactive sort of video game that allows you to sing along with a recorded track of music. You can see the words bouncing by on a screen and simply need to follow along. Because it is relatively easy to do it's something that even a family can enjoy in their Arlington real estate during the holidays or outside at a summer barbecue. You might be able to recognize a karaoke machine when you see one but likely don't know its history.

Karaoke is a Japanese word that would translate to "empty orchestra" in English. The concept of singing over top of recorded accompaniment has been around since the beginning of sound recording. The 45s that people would bring home to their Newmarket homes frequently were recorded with accompaniment first and vocals later. But, the development of the karaoke machine didn't happen until the 1970s.

There are a couple of different stories as to how this system came into being. Some say it was invented by the Japanese musician Daisuke Inoue in 1971. While he might not have been the first person to make one of these machines, he was certainly the person who started making the trend popular. Before people could control a karaoke machine with computers in their North York condominiums they used to lease a tape player that would play a series of tracks with Inoue's own music.

Inoue never patented his invention and eventually a Filipino inventor developed this technology and patented it in the 1980s. He called it "minus-one music". Throughout the 1990s this entertainment system spread throughout Asia and the rest of the world and it's unknown when the name changed to karaoke. Now you can find a karaoke bar in Mississauga real estate all the way to bars in Madrid. There are even people playing a number of karaoke video games, like Rock Band, on their home video game systems. This is certainly a technology that is not going away.

Karaoke has been used in a number of different ways throughout the years. In the 1990s you would find a number of taxis in South Korea called "carokes" which allowed you to sing along while you took your taxi ride. You can even download karaoke apps for your cell phone.