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808

Play trailer Poster for 808 2016 1h 47m Documentary Play Trailer Watchlist
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100% Tomatometer 10 Reviews 68% Popcornmeter 100+ Ratings
The history of the Roland TR-808 drum machine and the birth of electronic music.

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808

Critics Reviews

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THR Staff The Hollywood Reporter 06/02/2022
Stylishly presented and dance-friendly...Aspiring beatmakers and music geeks will eat it up. Go to Full Review
Jack Hamilton Slate 06/02/2022
A fittingly quirky and lively documentary. Go to Full Review
Andrew Barker Variety 06/02/2022
A consistently entertaining, instructive look at the unlikely heartbeat behind so much of the past three decades’ standout pop music. Go to Full Review
Jason Shawhan Nashville Scene 09/10/2021
If you've been missing the Belcourt's Music City Mondays series, here's a music-related documentary that will put some pep in your step - and contains no rockist clichés whatsoever. Go to Full Review
Benjamin H. Smith Decider 04/04/2018
808 is consistently interesting, informative and fun. Go to Full Review
Kahron Spearman The Daily Dot 01/17/2017
It's a valuable piece of work, laying out the ongoing influence and impact of the Roland TR-808 drum machine. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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06/01/2021 🤯 x 808. Playlist done! See more 10/23/2020 Awesome if you like this sort of thing. I do. See more 03/22/2020 The movie didn't cover one west coast artist. Straight garbage! See more 11/22/2019 My only complaint about this great documentary, is that there is no mention of The Egyptian Lover and Newcleus, who were pioneers of the Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer See more 11/04/2019 A series of interviews rather than a documentary that goes deep into the history of this amazing machine. And the worst thing is that the interviews keep going on about "wow this bass drum, wow this hi-hat sounds, ...oh! this cowbell''.. Eerrrr.. helloo!! we know this already! Tell us something that we dont know, like some elements behind the engineering, or the marketing, or the reason this happened at that time and how it relates to the music evolution that followed.. If you were to make a documentary about Hugo Boss for example would you only interview people who wear and admire his clothes?... Waste of my money this was. Plenty of free documentaries out there on electronic music. Sad to see that tomatometer critic reviewers give it 100% - I mean come on guys - there are other ways to market your documentary and monetise on music history.. Please.. See more 09/26/2018 Def worth watching for music-history/technology nerds... wish it felt a little more "gen access" for the greater public. Thought some sections were too long-winded... but I REALLY loved interview with Japanese designer. Kinda my fave part, really. :) And yes... I used to have one. Fantastic(!) machine. :) See more Read all reviews
808

My Rating

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Movie Info

Synopsis The history of the Roland TR-808 drum machine and the birth of electronic music.
Director
Alex Dunn
Producer
Alex Dunn, Matthew Jarman, Craig Kallman
Screenwriter
Luke Bainbridge, Alex Dunn
Distributor
Atlantic Film
Production Co
Atlantic Films
Genre
Documentary
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Dec 9, 2016, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
Mar 11, 2017
Runtime
1h 47m
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