Roland TR-808

The booming kick that never went away. Roland released the TR-808 in 1980, and its synthesized drums sounded nothing like a real kit, which is exactly why producers loved it: a deep, sustained bass drum, a snappy snare and that unmistakable clap and cowbell. Yellow Magic Orchestra used it on "1000 Knives", Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing" gave it a hit, and Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force's "Planet Rock" pushed it to the front of early hip-hop. Decades later it became a building block of crunk and trap, where the long 808 kick doubles as the bassline. No drum machine is more central to hip-hop and its many offshoots.