The 808 is one of the most influential inventions in popular music. In 2019, "DJMag" wrote that it is "probably the most used drum machine in the last 40 years". Samples of its sounds are common in music software, and it has inspired numerous unlicensed clones. "Flavorwire" wrote that "the 808 has become so ubiquitous over the years that its beats are almost a language of their own—you know the sounds even if you have no idea what a drum machine is, and as such, you also notice when somebody messes with them or uses them in unusual contexts". "The New Yorker" wrote in 2015 that the 808 was the bedrock of the modern "urban-youth-culture soundtrack", particularly in trap music, and had influenced a new blend of dance and retro hip hop that "embraces and fetishizes ... street music from the past". According to "Slate", it was instrumental in pop music's shift from conventional structure and harmonic progression to "thinking in terms of "sequences", discrete passages of sound and time to be repeated and revised "ad infinitum"".