You might not have heard his name, but you’ve heard his machine. Japanese engineer Ikutaro Kakehashi passed away in April 2017. He was a founder of Roland, the music electronics company, and the inventor of the ubiquitous Roland TR-808 drum machine.
The 808 has cemented its place in music history and pops up on a wide variety of tracks, from Marvin Gaye’s “Sexual Healing” to Kanye’s entire 808s and Heartbreaks album. But the machine almost died early.
The 808 was originally released in 1980 as a cheaper alternative to fancier machines. But cheaper parts meant less memory and more electronic sounds, which critics did not like. The 808 was pulled from shelves only three years later, but saw a resurgence thanks to underground producers in the worlds of techno-pop, hip hop, dance and techno. Used machines were selling for only a couple hundred dollars, and the interface was super easy to program. It didn’t take long for the 808 to start showing up everywhere.
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