TR-808
SNAP SIZZLE BOOM
FAR FROM JUST A DRUM MACHINE, THE TR-808 WAS ONE OF A KIND, A CULTURAL FORCE OOZING CHARACTER THAT ALTERED THE COURSE OF MUSIC HISTORY. CLASSIC POP EXAMINES ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PLAYERS IN POP MUSIC – THE ‘STRATOCASTER OF HIP-HOP’ – THAT MADE ITS RECORDED DEBUT IN 1981
FELIX ROWE
My old washing machine was a miracle-worker, obediently switching between ‘delicates’ and ‘heavily soiled’ at the click of button. But when it recently gave up the ghost, though a deeply traumatic experience, I mourned the loss on a purely practical level. After all, it wasn’t a sentient being. You programmed the thing and – via binary code and some clever circuitry – it carried out orders without question (well, after a thump anyway). Just a machine, easily replaced.
The Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer is also just a machine; a desktop appliance with various dials and buttons manipulating the circuitry within. So why is so much affection – genuinely intense, I’d-sell-mygran-to-own-one type affection – bestowed upon this inert electronic device? It recently received the full rockumentary treatment, with pop royalty queuing up to gush over it, as if recalling their glory days with Bob Marley. Scores of artists are named after it. Many more songs name-check it. There’s even a limited edition pair of custom Puma sneakers devoted to it. All this over a glorified calculator?
The TR-808 was barely on the market for three years, some four decades ago, and it was essentially considered a commercial flop at the time. Just 12,000 units were made between 1980 and 1982. But ‘Roland’s magic box’, as The New Yorker once called it, has appeared on thousands of records, clocked up umpteen numbers ones, and has helped to create several new genres. Today an original working unit will fetch up to £5,000.
LET THE MUSIC PLAY
The TR-808 was developed by Roland, principally as an affordable unit to aid professional musicians in recording demos without a live drummer. Launched in 1980, it made its recorded debut in early 1981 on Yellow Magic Orchestra’s BGM (an acronym for background music). Japan’s YMO were basically the unoffi cial testing ground for Roland’s latest gadgets. They swiftly followed up in the same year with future classic, Technodelic, again showcasing the new device.
The core technology behind the 808 was a backward step. At the time, digital sampling had already been introduced in drum machines including the Linn LM-1 and the Oberheim DMX (Blue Monday).