The Daily Swarm

It helped Marvin Gaye get some sexual healing. Beyonce and the Beastie Boys have sung (and rapped) its praises. The most revered makers of hip hop, techno and industrial rock couldn’t live without it. And now the most popular MC of our day pays tribute to it in the name of his new album.

Some may see the title of Kanye West’s 808s and Heartbreak (out this week) and assume those digits are just another of those cryptic numbers that musicians like to throw around (see also: Prince’s 3121, Nena’s 99 Luftballoons, Rush’s 2112). But the reference couldn’t be more specific — West has taken this opportunity to declare his loyalty to the Roland TR-808.
Soul singer Marvin Gaye used the Roland TR-808 for his 1982 hit Sexual Healing. Soul singer Marvin Gaye used the Roland TR-808 for his 1982 hit Sexual Healing. (Pictorial Parade/Getty Images)

Introduced in the early ’80s as one of the first programmable drum machines, the 808 was surpassed long ago by more high-tech musical tools. And yet musicians of all stripes and styles have deemed it indispensable for its stark percussion sound. With its metronomic precision, it may have none of the swing of a human drummer, but the 808 can still provide a futuristic kind of funkiness, especially when it’s in the right hands. This special timeline reveals how this once-lowly machine attained its iconic status.

1980: The Roland Corporation introduces the Roland TR-808, a programmable drum machine. According to Greg Rule’s book Future Shock, five percussion sounds characterize the 808: “the hum kick, the ticky snare, the tishy hi-hats (open and closed) and the spacey cowbell.” A Roland representative later credits the machine’s design to a Mr. Nakamura (responsible for the analog voice circuits) and a Mr. Matsuoka (who developed the software).
A 1980s advertisement for the 808. A 1980s advertisement for the 808. (Roland/Drum Machine Museum)

The 808 receives many poor reviews in the gearhead press of the day, generally being deemed inferior to the Linn LM-1, the first drum machine to use digital samples (i.e., prerecorded rather than machine-generated sounds). Nevertheless, it gains some popularity due to its relatively low cost of $1,195 US. Yellow Magic Orchestra, the pioneering Japanese synth-pop band, is the first band to put the 808 to use.

1982: Soul icon Marvin Gaye is the first artist to score a major hit with an 808-propelled song, when Sexual Healing becomes a worldwide smash. Even so, the obviously synthetic sound of the rhythm patterns does not gain wide popularity. Instead, the 808 becomes a cornerstone of the emerging genres of electronic music and hip hop, with the release of Planet Rock by Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force. Marking, in the words of producer Arthur Baker, a “marriage of electronic music with street culture and black music,” this thunderous single would also have a massive influence on subgenres like Miami bass and Detroit techno, thereby cementing the 808’s reputation as a fundamental element of futuristic sounds. (Hear also: Cybotron’s 1983 club hit Clear.)