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In the Philippines, the Minus-One (commonly, albeit improperly, spelled "minus one" without the hyphen) is a variant mix of a multi-track recording, wherein the lead vocal track of a song is muted for further use. In the Philippine recording industry of the 1980s, during the heyday of vinyl records, this variant was released as the "flip side" of a commercial song's 7-inch single, but generally never a part of the Long Playing album containing the full-featured song. Succinctly, a B-side selection became referred to as "minus-one" because the lead vocal track is subtracted from the A-Side song's original mix.

The Minus-One is the patented name of the karaoke machine invented by Filipino business executive Roberto del Rosario in 1975. The term "karaoke" is a combined Japanese word from karappo (空っぽ, empty) and okestura (オーケストラ, orchestra), meaning "empty orchestra" or an "orchestra void of vocals," which the Minus-One machine is. Although, the term and the idea of records without vocals can be traced back to the Music Minus One company in the 1950s.

Record production genre

As a genre of record production in the Philippines, the inclusion of a 'minus-one' Side-B reduced the production cost of a 45 RPM 7-inch "single" by foregoing the need for yet another song to occupy the 7-inch record's flip side. It also encouraged buyers to "sing along" with the bonus accompaniment of the "hit single".

A "minus-one mix" would not necessarily be wholly instrumental, as backing vocals of the song's original mix may be retained. The concept of instrumental B-sides to complement their full versions became a production trend of the Philippine record industry of the 1980s, which was replicated overseas. In the ensuing years, tracks from minus-one flip sides were assembled by production houses for their inclusion in compilations.

Examples of minus-one sides

The following table illustrates early B-sides of Zsa Zsa Padilla's 45-RPM 7" Vinyl singles released by Blackgold Records. Many such vinyl sides have since been ported to other platforms, including VCD, videoke and free video sharing websites.

Other examples

• In 1987, a song by the Filipino band, The Dawn was released as a 7-inch 45 RPM single (with minus-one) by their record label, OctoArts.
• In the 2000s, Narda, a band from the Philippines, featured an album page in AllMusic with dedicated minus-one content.
  

Minus-one is content, not equipment

The wave of "Minus-One" vinyl B-sides brought about a genre in the Philippine record industry, harvested by the cousins Vic del Rosario and Orly Ilacad, co-owners and executive producers of Vicor Music Corporation and its offshoot record labels. They released the seminal 7-inch B-sides of minus-one recordings, later grouped together as minus-one compilations on cassette tape format, Compact Disks and later as online material.

As sheer musical content, the instrumentals were a precursor to widespread recreational crooning at home and outside, its provenance effectively traced to the Music Minus One products of the mid-1950s. In 1975, Filipino executive Roberto del Rosario patented his sing-along invention as Minus-One, popularly known as the karaoke machine, an interactive entertainment system without vocals. As a Filipino trait for festivity, the allure for minus-one recordings crossed cultural barriers in the Philippines.

See also

• Karaoke

References

1. Minus One | Slang Define, archived from the original on February 15, 2024
2. "Merriam-Webster: Flip side Definition & Meaning". April 26, 2024.
3. "Collins Dictionary: FLIP SIDE definition and meaning". 2024.
4. ^ "#ANONGBALITA Karaoke inventor Negishi dies, 100, family reports". Manila Standard. March 17, 2024. Retrieved December 26, 2024.
5. "Music Minus One Series Hal Leonard Online". Hal Leonard Online. Retrieved December 26, 2024.
6. Production Genre | soundroll.com
7. Oxford Languages: flipside | Google
8. Fintoni, Laurent (2020). Bedroom Beats & B-Sides: Instrumental Hip-Hop & Electronic Music at the Turn of the Century. Velocity Press. ISBN 9781913231040.
9. "Vocal Removal and Isolation". manual.audacityteam.org. November 16, 2023.
10. Epekto ng OPM Orihinal na Musika ng Pilipino | musixmatch (in Tagalog)
11. Minus One | AllMusic
12. "Vic, Orly & Tito: Philpop's music trio". PressReader. The Philippine Star. March 8, 2017.
13. Minus-One OPM Alternative Love Songs | Universal Records, Polycosmic, August 2021
14. Odrich, Jim (May 2016), The Jim Odrich Experience: Music Minus One Piano | Google Books, Music Minus One, ISBN 978-1-59615-056-0
15. Charles E. Griffith, Jr. (March 1924). "Folk Music in the Philippines". Music Supervisors' Journal. 10 (4): 26–64. doi:10.2307/3383136. JSTOR 3383136 – via JSTOR.org.
16. "communal celebration". Collins Dictionary. 2024.
17. "Pinoy music artists sing of love and hope for Philippines {mention of minus one)". goodnewspilipinas. May 2, 2019.
18. "Quincentennial Theme Song Minus One MP3". National Quincentennial Committee Philippines, National Historical Commission of the Philippines. March 25, 2020.
19. "Bagani Quincentennial Theme Song". National Quincentennial Committee Philippines, National Historical Commission of the Philippines. March 25, 2020.

External links

• B-side
• What are Minus-one tracks and why they are used
• Minus-One OPM Alternative Love Songs
• Why are instrumental tracks also called "minus-one tracks"?
• Backing Tracks Minus Vocals

• Music of the Philippines