Scott K Fish: Would Today’s Music Make Me Want to Be a Drummer?

Scott K Fish

I rarely listen to my car radio. Music? I plug in my MP3 player. Audiobooks and podcasts? I plug in my MP3 player.

For three days this week I am driving to Florida with Eileen, in Eileen’s car, and she always listen to music on her car radio. Plus, she likes to bounce between radio stations whenever one is playing a song she doesn’t like.

To make the best of this experience I decided to listen, focus, on the drummers in all the radio songs. Something I’ve not done in a long, long time.

Mostly I’m hearing pop songs from the 1960’s to today. Also, contemporary country.

First impression? At some point, recording techniques for drummers changed. And on contemporary pop/country music, so far, I’m hearing a sameness to the drumming. Start to finish, every drum beat, every cymbal crash is the same volume, played with metronomic sameness. I know, in some cases, I’m listening to drumming, but not a drummer.

At one point on this trip I asked myself, “If I was growing up on this music would I want to be a drummer?”

Well, I have to get back on the road for the last leg of this trip. I’ll write more on this topic in a day or so.

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