Japanese Shigeichi Negishi, little-known inventor of the first karaoke machine, died at 100. In 1967, he created the “Sparko Box”, which automatically allowed you to sing along to a track of an already existing song.
The idea came to him after a colleague at his electronics assembly company made fun of him while he was singing at the top of his lungs in the office. The word "karaoke" became a trademark registered by the Kisaburo Takagi record store in the early 1960s.