In the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

, the Minus-One (commonly, albeit improperly, spelled "minus one" without the

hyphen The hyphen is a punctuation mark used to join words and to separate syllables of a single word. The use of hyphens is called hyphenation. The hyphen is sometimes confused with dashes (en dash , em dash and others), which are wider, or with t ...

) 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 A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English) or a vinyl record (for later varieties only) is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The g ...

, this variant was released as the "flip side" of a commercial song's

7-inch single In music, a single is a type of release of a song recording of fewer tracks than an album ( LP), typically one or two tracks. A single can be released for sale to the public in a variety of physical or digital formats. Singles may be standa ...

, 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 "Sing-Along System"

karaoke machine is a type of interactive entertainment system usually offered in nightclubs and bars, where people sing along to pre-recorded accompaniment using a microphone. Its musical content is an instrumental rendition of a well-known popular song. In ...

invented by Filipino business executive

Roberto del Rosario Roberto Legaspi del Rosario (June 7, 1919 – July 30, 2003) was a Filipino entrepreneur; best known as the patentholder of the ''Sing-Along System'', a type of karaoke appliance he developed in 1975. From his entrepreneurial initiative to patent ...

in 1975. The term and the idea of records without vocals can be traced back to the

Music Minus One Music Minus One (MMO) was an American educational music company founded in Westchester, New York. The company released play-along albums intended to accompany a melodic instrument (or voice type, vocalist) as an aid for practicing. Background Mus ...

company in the 1950s.

Record production genre

As a genre of

record production A record producer or music producer is a music creating project's overall supervisor whose responsibilities can involve a range of creative and technical leadership roles. Typically the job involves hands-on oversight of recording sessions; ensu ...

in the Philippines, the inclusion of a 'minus-one' Side-B reduced the

production cost Cost of goods sold (COGS) (also cost of products sold (COPS), or cost of sales) is the carrying value of goods sold during a particular period. Costs are associated with particular goods using one of the several formulas, including specific ident ...

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 Accompaniment is the musical part which provides the rhythmic and/or harmonic support for the melody or main themes of a song or instrumental piece. There are many different styles and types of accompaniment in different genres and styles of m ...

of the "hit single". A "minus-one mix" would not necessarily be wholly

instrumental An instrumental or instrumental song is music without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through Semantic change, semantic widening, a broader sense of the word s ...

, as

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are us ...

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 The A-side and B-side are the two sides of vinyl records and cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a single usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or ...

Zsa Zsa Padilla Esperanza "Zsa Zsa" Perez Padilla (born May 28, 1964) is a Filipino singer, actress, television host, music producer and businesswoman. Referred to as the "''Divine Diva''", Padilla is recognized as one of the top female recording artists in th ...

's 45-RPM 7" Vinyl singles released by Blackgold Records. Many such vinyl sides have since been ported to other platforms, including

VCD Video CD (abbreviated as VCD, and also known as Compact Disc Digital Video), (not to be confused with CD Video which is a type of LaserDisc, Laserdisc) is a home video format and the first format for distributing films on standard optical di ...

, videoke and free

video sharing An online video platform (OVP) enables users to upload, convert, store, and play back video content on the Internet, often via a private server structured, large-scale system that may generate revenue. Users will generally upload video content vi ...

websites.

Other examples

* In 1987, a

song A song is a musical composition performed by the human voice. The voice often carries the melody (a series of distinct and fixed pitches) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs have a structure, such as the common ABA form, and are usu ...

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 AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

with dedicated minus-one content.

Minus-one is content, not equipment

The wave of "Minus-One" vinyl B-sides brought about a

genre Genre () is any style or form of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other fo ...

in the Philippine record industry, harvested by the cousins Vic del Rosario and Orly Ilacad, co-owners and

executive producers Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the production of media. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights or royalties). In films, ...

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

products of the mid-1950s. In 1975, Filipino executive

patented his sing-along invention as Minus-One, popularly known as the

, an

interactive entertainment Interactive media refers to digital experiences that dynamically respond to user input, delivering content such as text, images, animations, video, audio, and even AI-driven interactions. Over the years, interactive media has expanded across ...

system without vocals. As a Filipino trait for festivity, the allure for minus-one recordings crossed cultural barriers in the Philippines.

References

External links