808: The drum machine that changed music forever (Twenty Thousand Hertz)

Switched on Pop

Vox Media Podcast Network

Music Interviews, Music History, Music, Music Commentary

4.6 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 25 May 2025

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The 808 is arguably the most iconic drum machine ever made. Even if you’ve never heard of it, you’ve definitely heard it. It’s in dozens of hit songs -- from Usher to Marvin Gaye, Talking Heads to The Beastie Boys -- and its sounds have quietly cemented themselves in the cultural lexicon. In this episode, we try to understand how that happened and follow the unlikely path of the 808. Featuring DJ Jazzy Jeff and Paul McCabe from Roland. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	What if you could make that stop?
0:02.5	With LPL Financial, we remove the things holding you back
0:05.3	and provide the services to help push you forward.
0:08.0	If you're a financial advisor, what if you could have more freedom, but also more support,
0:12.4	ready to invest?
0:13.5	What if you could have an advisor that really understood you?
0:16.2	When it comes to your finances, your business, your future, at LPL Financial,
0:20.2	we believe the only question
0:21.4	should be. What if you could? Pit advertisement, Anna Kendrick is not a client of LPL Financial
0:24.8	LLC and receives compensation to promote LPL. Investing involves risk, including potential
0:27.9	loss or principal LPL financial LLC member, FINRA, SIPC.
0:32.9	Welcome to Switched on Pop. I'm songwriter Charlie Harding.
0:40.9	We live in a moment of great anxiety about the future of technology and human creativity.
0:45.7	And maybe that's because the two are so intertwined.
0:49.6	I mean, just think of how creatively limited we would be without the development of charcoal,
0:53.0	the printing press, the piano.
0:55.0	And pop music history is really a series of technological breakthroughs.
0:58.0	The gramophone, four-track tape, digital reverb, and my personal favorite drum machines.
1:03.0	I think the sound of pop music over the last 40 years is owed to a single drum machine.
1:08.0	Of course, I'm talking about the TR-808. It's the sound of sexual healing.
1:14.8	Planet Rock. I want to dance with somebody. And even Drake's latest song, Nokia.
1:28.5	The story of the 808 has a lot to tell us about the intersection of human creativity and
	...

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