Why did a drum machine that flopped become the sound of hip-hop?
Roland built only about 12,000 TR-808s, and they sounded nothing like real drums. Then its booming kick drum became hip-hop's signature, and producers learned to tune it into a bass line.
โถ Start the storyThe 808 flopped because it did not sound like real drums, and then its idiosyncratic sound won it a following. Roland's TR-808, made between 1980 and 1983, was a commercial failure: electronic music had yet to become mainstream and many producers wanted more realistic drum sounds. Its sounds do not resemble real percussion; they have been described as clicky, robotic, spacey, toy-like and futuristic.
Roland built about 12,000 units before discontinuing it. By then it was common on the used market, often selling for less than $100, and its ease of use, affordability and idiosyncratic sound earned it a cult following among underground musicians and producers. Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing" in 1982 was the first US hit single to feature it, and Afrika Bambaataa's "Planet Rock", also in 1982, used it to create strange, futuristic percussion that was popular in clubs.
Roland TR-808
- Analog synthesis
- Sounds do not resemble real percussion
- Cheaper, programmable with a step sequencer
Linn LM-1
- Samples of real drums
- More expensive
- Samples needed memory chips, which were costly
Above all there was the bass drum. It is built from a sine oscillator, a low-pass filter and a voltage-controlled amplifier, and its decay control lengthens it into uniquely low frequencies. Producers such as Rick Rubin lengthened the decay and tuned the bass drum to different pitches to create basslines. Hank Shocklee of the Bomb Squad said "it's not hip-hop without that sound".
The 808 was eventually used on more hit records than any other drum machine.
Step 1: Sine oscillator
Starts the bass drum sound
Step 2: Low-pass filter
Part of the same bass drum circuit
Step 3: Amplifier and decay
A longer decay gives uniquely low frequencies
Step 4: Tuned to a pitch
Producers tune it to make basslines
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Recap
A drum machine that sounded fake and cheap became the sound of hip-hop because its synthetic bass drum could be tuned like a note.
๐ก A trick to remember it ยท Sold few, heard everywhere: the kick that wouldn't stop decaying became the bass line.
Surprising fact ยท It was a commercial failure with about 12,000 units built, and it later appeared on more hit records than any other drum machine.
Connects to
- ๐ฟ How did seven seconds of a 1969 drum solo become the sound of jungle?
- ๐ Is there one algorithm behind the world's traditional rhythms?
- ๐ท What makes swing swing, and are the musicians late on purpose?
- Drum machine
- Step sequencer
- Hip hop production
- Analog synthesizer
Sources (2)
No source, no claim. Every fact in this lesson (24 claims) cites at least one of these.