The Music and the Machines: The SP-1200, the MPC, and the Evolution of Hip-Hop Beat Making

Patrick Rivers, ethnomusicologist and assistant professor of music at the University of New Haven, and Will Fulton, a musicologist and associate professor of music at LaGuardia Community College, will talk about how the SP-1200 became the most commonly used instrument of hip-hop production circa 1990. They'll also talk about how, as the 1990s progressed, the intuitively designed MPC series developed a "relationship" with hip-hop music, supplanting the SP-1200 as the most popular sampler. It happens today at 7 p.m. at the Rock Hall. Admission is free with a reservation through the Rock Hall's website. (Niesel)