In 1982, the Roland Corporation of Japan released the Transistor Bass line TB-303. It was intended for guitarists practicing alone, who needed a machine to play accompaniment. It was a silver box with a confusing sequencer, a shrill and unnatural sound, and absolutely no ability to sound like a real bass guitar.
The Pawn Shop Era
Roland ceased production of the TB-303 after 18 months. It was a commercial flop. Thousands of units ended up in second-hand music stores and pawn shops, selling for as little as $50.
In Chicago, a group called Phuture (DJ Pierre, Earl "Spanky" Smith Jr., and Herbert "Herb J" Jackson) picked one up. They didn't have the manual. They plugged it in and started randomly twisting the knobs: Cutoff, Resonance, Env Mod, Decay, Accent.
"I didn't know how to program it. I just pushed the buttons randomly to make patterns, and while the pattern was playing, I started tweaking the knobs to see what they did."
The Squelch
They discovered that by turning the resonance up and sweeping the cutoff frequency while the pattern played, the machine stopped sounding like a bass and started sounding like a distinct, alien entity. It squelched. It screamed. It sounded like liquid electricity.
They recorded a track called "Acid Tracks" (originally "In Your Mind"). They gave a cassette to Ron Hardy at the Muzic Box. He played it four times in one night. By the fourth time, the crowd was in a frenzy.
A failed product became the signature sound of a global movement.