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PLAYLIST: Drumming While Punk
A Brief History of Punk Drumming in 80 Songs
I’m a drummer so that’s what I tend to focus on when listening to music. It took me a surprisingly long time to realize that this isn’t how most music-lovers hear songs.
It’s safe to say that the majority of fans pay way more attention to the melodies, lead vocals and guitar riffs—but there are notable exceptions in genres like jazz, progressive rock and heavy metal. Punk rock is another genre that has always afforded drummers a little extra spotlight.
There are two main reasons for this: The rudimentary instrumentation and no-frills recordings of early punk bands gave drummers more room to stand out in the mix; punk drummers are hard to ignore in small, sweaty clubs.
The low barrier to entry for playing punk rock meant that many of the genre’s early drummers were self-taught or otherwise relatively inexperienced behind a kit, while the scene’s more tenured timekeepers often took a minimalist and/or idiosyncratic approach. Many believe that this foundation of hard-driving simplicity is the secret to punk’s longevity.
