The 808 drum machine: A story of innovation or user-driven adaptation?
The 808 drum machine is a cultural phenomenon. A piece of equipment which defined genres such as hip-hop and electronica. But its success and impact has almost entirely been defined by its failure.
You may not necessarily be aware of Roland 808 drum machine, but you will have certainly heard it. It was released in 1980, and in 1982 Afrika Bambaataa released ‘Planet Rock’ which made extensive use of the 808’s sounds. In the same year Marvin Gayes “Sexual Healing” helped popularise the machine in the mainstream. Despite these early adopters, the 808 was discontinued by Roland a year later in 1983, selling less than 12,000 units and deemed a commercial failure.
Music professionals were quick to criticise its unrealistic synthesised drum sounds and idiosyncratic timing when compared to other drum machines which used sampled drum sounds, and of course live drums.
The late Ikutaro Kakehashi - Roland founder and creator of the TR-808
The engineers at Roland aimed to emulate real percussion, but owing to the high cost of memory at the time, designed sound generating hardware, with faulty transistors bought deliberately, creating the machines distinctive sound.
“it was seen as a toy that made robotic sounds, rather than a serious instrument”
How the Roland TR-808 revolutionized music - The Verge
By the time Roland discontinued the product you could pick up a used 808 for $100, well within the reach of budding musicians and producers. ‘Users’ who were thinking to the future, favoured its simplicity and embraced its idiosyncratic sound, at a time before ‘electronic’ music was in vogue. But the 808 quickly built a cult following.
Such is the 808’s influence it has been described as hip-hops equivalent to the fender Stratocaster. Similar genres of underground music credit their unique sounds to the 808 too, such as acid house, drum and bass, detroit techno and more recently dubstep and footwork.
The growing use of the 808 in music production soon crossed into the mainstream in the late 80’s with Phil Collins, Whitney Houston, Beastie Boys and Talking Heads all favouring the machines over live drums.
40 years on and the dominance of the product dubbed a failure can be heard everywhere from Daft Punk to Kanye West, the latter dedicating an entire album to it (808’s and Heartbreak), and an Atlantic Records 2015 documentary film made in its honour.
The original units will now cost you (if you’re lucky enough to find one) anything up to £10,000 depending on their condition. In 2014 Roland finally released a new version of the machine (The TR8) for around £500, but critically without the never-to-be-replicated faulty transistors, which gave the 808 its trademark sound.
A missed opportunity
Roland created something new, driven by innovative design, that the market they were targeting weren’t ready for. Their emerging ‘customers’ saw something that Roland themselves didn’t see. They caved to the initial feedback, and missed out on monetising 40 years of music making, but of course can be satisfied with the legacy they’ve left and impact made on a global industry.
Sometimes it pays to take a different view of something, adapt and listen to how people are using your product.
This is, after all, the essence of the innovation spectrum. Some people will take an idea and make it work, and continue to improve it with each iteration. Conversely, some people will seek the brand new idea, the next big thing, and start their thinking not from what already exists, but from what doesn’t. These are the innovators, the paradigm breakers, the blue sky thinkers. As product designers and service providers we need both sides of the spectrum, the continue improvers and the paradigm breakers, and we need to be awake to our customers bringing the same varied outlook. Be open to the art of the possible, the healthy conflict that builds creativity, and the realisation that success is based on bringing together the dreamers and the pragmatists and being flexible enough to embrace the opportunities they bring.