If there is ever a Reggae Hall of Fame, Hiroko Okuda at Casio Computer Co. would be a fitting nominee for a monumental contribution she unknowingly made to the popular Jamaican musical genre.

Casio Computer hired Okuda in 1980 as one of its first female engineers tasked with starting a musical instruments business when the company made its foray into the new market.

The first product she was entrusted to develop was the Casiotone MT-40 electronic keyboard, for which she composed preset backing tracks and configured operational settings.

One of the tracks for the keyboard she composed helped revolutionize reggae in and after the 1980s, when the beat was turned into “Sleng Teng,” a rhythm that created hundreds of songs.

FASCINATED BY REGGAE

Soon after Okuda joined Casio, she organized a gig with her fellow colleagues, who were fresh out of music colleges, to play their favorite music in front of their supervisors and other staff.

While other new recruits played classical pieces, Okuda opted for a dub song, a subgenre of reggae, with the keyboard.

Her choice of music stunned everyone.

She has enjoyed playing the piano since she was a child and was fascinated by British rock music during the 1970s.

Okuda was first introduced to reggae when she was studying music theory and other subjects at the Kunitachi College of Music.

She was intrigued by the music genre because she thought many of the songs were upbeat despite containing violent lyrics. She also became interested by how Jamaican people joyfully sang songs of resistance.

Okuda bought many records and even wrote her college graduation thesis on reggae.

DEVELOPING THE INSTRUMENT

Casio’s foray into the music instrument business was a pet project of Toshio Kashio, one of the four founding Kashio brothers who was a then-managing director and a reputed inventor.

When Okuda was entrusted with developing the Casiotone MT-40, there was no software to create music using personal computers.

To create digital music, she had to transcribe rhythms, convert them into electronic data and transfer them to the ROM before playing them with a trial product.

She could listen to the rhythm patterns with the trial machine only about once a day. When she needed to make adjustments, she had to enter the electronic data from scratch.

After meticulous and strenuous work for about two months, Okuda created six rhythms and three chord types (major, minor and seventh chords) for each rhythm, producing a total of 18 tracks.

One of them was a “rock” rhythm.

“I made the other five rhythms in an orthodox style, but I made this tune a little bit unique,” she said.

The MT-40 was released in October of 1981 at a price of 35,000 yen (about $159 at the time, when the currency was trading at around 220 to the dollar.)

It only was sold for about two years.

But some time later, the “rock” preset caused an unexpected stir in a place far from Japan.

In 1985, Jamaican reggae singer Wayne Smith released a song titled "Under Mi Sleng Teng,” which became a huge hit.

Japan's Music Magazine commented about the song at the time, saying that the rhythm had single-handedly taken over the reggae scene beginning in early 1985.

It also described how the low-pitched, cheap-sounding beat made using a Casiotone went on and on and on.

When Okuda read the article, she instantly knew that “Under Mi Sleng Teng” was produced using the “rock” preset from the MT-40.

“Those who know it know it,” she said, recalling that moment.

“I had a groundless confidence that it would be popular” since the moment she created it, Okuda added.

INSPIRED MORE THAN 450 SONGS

Since then, the “rock” preset took hold as a rhythm called “Sleng Teng.”

Musicians add lyrics and other elements to rhythms to express their individuality.

Famous rhythms are given names such as “Answer” and “Stalag.”

In particular, it is said that "Sleng Teng" brought a “digital revolution” to the reggae world.

Previously, it was expensive to create reggae music because musicians had to prepare audio equipment, studios and other necessities.

But because the MT-40 was originally aimed at families, the keyboard was readily available and easy to play.

The product made it much easier for users to create music.

It is believed that "Sleng Teng" has spawned at least 450 songs, gaining the moniker of reggae’s “monster of rhythm.”

Okuda has continued to work in the development department for Casio’s musical instruments business, still working at age 65.

“I input songs into the Casiotone, and Jamaican people found them and returned them to me. It’s great,” Okuda said. “It feels rewarding to think that I returned the favor to reggae.”

When asked about the source of inspiration for the “rock” preset, Okuda said with a smile: “It’s up to your interpretation. It’s fun to see people guess.”

However, the engineer did say she was inspired by a British rock song from the 1970s that fascinated her.