Ikutaro Kakahashi, Founder Of Roland Drum Machines, Dies At 87
The Japanese entrepreneur and music fanatic laid the groundwork for house music and hip-hop with machines like the TR-808 and TR-909.
Ikutaro Kakehashi, the founder of the Japanese synthesizer company Roland, died yesterday at the age of 87. The news was confirmed by the company in a statement.
Decades of hits performed by everyone from Marvin Gaye to Madonna used Roland's iconic inventions. Kakehashi was also one of the original architects of MIDI, a method introduced in 1983 of getting different musical machines to "talk" to each other and which is still in used regularly around the world.
When we think of the people who shaped popular music, we
