[3] The TB-303's unrealistic sound made it unpopular with its target audience, musicians who wanted to replace bass guitars.

[3] Indian musician Charanjit Singh's 1982 album Synthesizing: Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat featured an early use of a TB-303, alongside the TR-808.

[6] Singh had an influence on Bollywood music producer Bappi Lahiri, who experimented with tweaked TB-303 basslines for several Indian disco film songs released in 1983: "Koi Lutera" in Wanted: Dead or Alive, "Aah Ha Oonh Hun" in Do Gulaab, and "Tum Tum Tumba" in Karate.

[7] The first song using the TB-303 to enter the top ten of the UK Singles Chart was "Rip It Up" (1983) by Scottish band Orange Juice.

With the TB-303 as a staple sound, acid became popular worldwide, particularly as part of the UK's emerging rave culture known as the second summer of love.

[9] In 1995, the TB-303 was distorted and processed on Josh Wink's hit "Higher State of Consciousness"[4][10] and on Daft Punk's "Da Funk".