When we think about the parts of a song that determine its character, we rarely consider: who is listening to it, and how? But who listens, changes everything. If an 808 booms at a party but nobody comes, does it make a sound?
Your listening partners are very important. Sometimes a group of like-minded enthusiasts can ritualize how they listen together. In my circle, most sessions of Listening Club have been focused on the discography of one artist—Black Sabbath, say, or Can. This post speaks to the theme of the most recent LC: The Roland 808, the drum machine that cut across genres, helped invent whole new ones, and ushered in a new era of popular music.
Listen to the full Listening Club: LC808 Playlist
Think about the Roland-808 drum machine as a design object. Its elements are as signature as chrome steel on a Cadillac, as definite as a double-C Chanel logo-particularly the boom of an 808 kick drum. Car aficionados talk about the engine purr on a Ferrari: the sonic fetish of an 808 is the same.
Ikutaro Kakehashi was born in 1930 in Osaka. After a half a lifetime of obsession with electronic instruments and mechanical engineering, Kakehashi solidified a name for when he founded Roland Corporation in 1972, and led the development of synthesizers and drum machines, including the TR-808. The 808 was one of the first programmable drum machines and its sound palette marked a new chapter for electronic drums, because the 808 made no attempt to replicate “real” drum sounds. The 808’s palette was more about “futuristic” interpretations of physical drums.
As styles of music evolve, so does how we listen to them. The 808 and its magickal, futuristic yet chthonic kick drum rose to prominence as sound systems grew bigger, the kick drum louder, the ability to move a crowd, more pronounced. Same was true for car systems that underwent their own sonic arms race.
The 808 ushered in the era of boom. It redefined who could make music by putting rhythm at the fingertips of anyone who could tap at a row of multicolored buttons. And it put the LOW end front and center in the mix like never before, helping new styles and artists spread across cities in the US and Europe on bigger and bigger systems. For the first ten-twelve years of its life, the 808 powered everything from hip-hop, to-R&B, to funk, electro, house, and even freaking Phil Collins. Here’s a rundown of a few of the 808’s most memorable moments:
In hip-hop, the 808 was the equivalent to a Fender Stratocaster: it defined a sound. LL’s early joint let the power of the 808 do the talking. You don’t have to dress it up: just bring that clean, pure, futuristic drum sound and put it front and center.
The Pointer Sisters - Automatic
The disco and R&B group had two Grammy wins in 1984 - one of them was for Automatic. Like Prince’s It’s Automatic from ‘82, The Pointer Sisters’s tune marries mechanical beats to lyrics with mechanical themes.
Side theme: notice how often the tech of an era influences our speech. Notice how much of your own speech is peppered with techspeak. We treat ourselves like computers: we say we need to reboot, we don’t have enough bandwidth…..
The sound of the Detroit electronic music pioneers was the sound of the city transforming—from an industrial powerhouse to a post-industrial wasteland. Amidst the decline and hollowing out of a city, tracks like iconic Clear envisioned a sleek, funky future in the ruins.
Omar represents a new generation of Detroit club music makers—he’s a virtuoso of the 808, and a classicist driven to plumb the possibilities of the drum machine in a new ways. Having long been associated with electro and techno in the Motor City, the 808 in Omar’s hands becomes the perfect gritty house instrument.
Nitzer Ebb - Join in the Chant
The eighties saw a multi-pronged explosion of sequenced music driven by the 808—beyond the funky realms of rap, r&b and house, the drum machine also powered the rise of industrial music and EBM (electric body music), like the ultra-authoritarian British group Nitzer Ebb.
Phil Collins - Don’t Lose My Number
The potential of the 808 was so undeniable, even Phil had to get on the act. The erstwhile Genesis frontman and renowned drummer gravitated toward the 808 precisely because it was repetitive: it was “willing” to play way more minimally than any human rival. The 808’s endless grooves are all over No Jacket Required, like on this tune where they give Phil’s upbeat blue-eyed soul a bit of a punchy robotic edge.