卡拉ok發(fā)明者根岸茂一去世，享年100歲

Shigeichi Negishi, the man who invented the modern karaoke machine, has died at age 100.
發(fā)明現(xiàn)代卡拉ok機的根岸茂一去世，享年100歲。

The Japanese businessman died on Jan. 26 after a fall, Negishi's daughter Atsumi Takano said, per The Wall Street Journal.
據(jù)《華爾街日報》報道，根岸的女兒高野敦美說，這位日本商人于1月26日墜樓身亡。

WSJ reporter Matt Alt was one of the first to share the news of Negishi's death on X (formerly Twitter), noting that Negishi's family had asked him to share the news.
《華爾街日報》記者馬特·阿爾特是最早在X(前身為Twitter)上分享根岸去世消息的人之一，并指出根岸的家人要求他分享這個消息。

"Farewell to another legend: Shigeichi Negishi, inventor of karaoke, has died age 100,” wrote Alt, who interviewed the Tokyo native in 2018. “By automating the sing-along, he earned the enmity of performers who saw his machine as a threat to their jobs. It's an eerie precursor of the debate surrounding AI's impact on artists today.”
“告別另一個傳奇:卡拉ok的發(fā)明者根岸茂一去世，享年100歲，”Alt在2018年采訪了這位東京人。通過自動化合唱，他贏得了表演者的敵意，他們認為他的機器會威脅到他們的工作。這是圍繞人工智能對當今藝術(shù)家影響的辯論的一個令人毛骨悚然的前兆。”

The salesman, who made a living at his tech company Nichiden Kogyo, produced the first version of the karaoke machine in 1967, when he was already in his 40s. Negishi originally called it a “Sparko Box,” and the first seed for the idea came after one of his employees jokingly insulted his singing voice.
這位銷售人員在他的科技公司Nichiden Kogyo謀生，1967年，他已經(jīng)40多歲了，生產(chǎn)出了第一臺卡拉ok機。根岸最初稱它為“Sparko Box”，這個想法的第一個種子來自于他的一名員工開玩笑地侮辱了他的歌聲。

In his 2018 interview with Alt, Negishi recalled the engineer calling out to him as he sang to himself down the hallway, “You aren’t a very good singer, Mr. Negishi!”
在2018年接受阿爾特采訪時，根岸回憶道，這位工程師一邊在走廊里自言自語，一邊對他喊道:“根岸先生，你唱得不太好!”

Shortly after, he came up with a plan. He asked one of his engineers to put together a microphone, speaker and tape deck, and inserted an 8-track tape to play the song “Mujo no Yume” (“The Heartless Dream” in English) by Yoshio Kodama.
不久之后，他想出了一個計劃。他讓他的一名工程師把麥克風、揚聲器和磁帶架組裝在一起，插入了一盤8軌磁帶，播放了玉玉良夫的歌曲《無情的夢》。

According to Alt, Negishi immediately brought the “Sparko Box” — named for the flashing lights within a later design of the machine — home to his family and tested it with all his kids, giving them each a chance to sing.
據(jù)阿爾特說，根岸立即把這臺“Sparko Box”帶回了家，并讓他所有的孩子都測試了一下，讓他們每個人都有機會唱歌。“Sparko Box”以機器后來設(shè)計中的閃光命名。

“I still remember how shocked and thrilled all of us were hearing our voices come out of the speaker,” his daughter recalled.
他的女兒回憶說:“我仍然記得，聽到揚聲器里傳出自己的聲音時，我們所有人是多么震驚和激動。”

Although Negishi is now credited with creating the machine, musician Daisuke Inoue was long thought to be the grandfather of karaoke, although his version was invented independently in 1971, per NPR.
據(jù)美國國家公共電臺報道，盡管根岸現(xiàn)在被認為是這臺機器的發(fā)明者，但音樂家井上大介一直被認為是卡拉ok之父，盡管他的卡拉ok版本是在1971年獨立發(fā)明的。

Next, Negishi hit the road, becoming a traveling salesman as he attempted to sell Sparko Boxes to bars, hotels, restaurants and any other venue he could think of. By the end of his career, he had sold around 8,000 devices, the Wall Street Journal reported.
接下來，根岸踏上了旅途，成為了一名旅行推銷員，他試圖向酒吧、酒店、餐館和任何他能想到的場所銷售Sparko Boxes。據(jù)《華爾街日報》報道，到他職業(yè)生涯結(jié)束時，他已經(jīng)售出了大約8000臺設(shè)備。

Negishi never patented the device, citing Japan’s difficult patenting process of the 1960s as the main reason why. But according to Takano, “truly, the patent never bothered him.”
根岸從未為這款設(shè)備申請過專利，主要原因是日本在上世紀60年代申請專利的過程非常艱難。但據(jù)高野說，“真的，這項專利從未困擾過他。”

“He felt a lot of pride in seeing his idea evolve into a culture of having fun through song around the world,” she told The Wall Street Journal. “To him, spending a hundred years surrounded by his family was reward enough.”
她在接受《華爾街日報》采訪時表示:“看到自己的想法演變成一種通過歌曲在世界各地尋找樂趣的文化，他感到非常自豪。”“對他來說，和家人一起度過一百年就已經(jīng)足夠了。”

Negishi is survived by three children, five grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren, per the outlet.
據(jù)報道，根岸有三個孩子、五個孫子和八個曾孫。