Australia is a country not entirely dissimilar to the US. The gentry there have grasped a cafe culture of coffee conossieurism, spoon fed themselves organic food and green initiatives, and put their ear to the ground for great music.
This Australia Day the Ozzies continued a tradition of tuning into their public radio station triple-J and counting down the top 100 songs of 2010. Very cool.
But this article isn’t about any Ozzie tradition or US-Australian influences, it’s about drumming. It struck me when I heard the number 1 song of their top 100. Rock drummers there do the same thing as most rock drummers in the states…ignore dynamics.
Check out the track that set me off and listen critically:
Big Jet Plane – Angus and Julia Stone
It’s a pretty beautiful track with a great build over the first 30 seconds or so, the kind of build that makes it great for synching to picture. In fact, they nailed the build.
Then the drums come in…gross.
Typical of rock drumming today is this idea of standing out – kick starting the loudest part of the song. Why on earth would you the loudest part of your song in the first 30″? Unless of course you only wanted to write 30″ of music. But this song is longer than that so we can assume otherwise.
What would you like to hear? Or do you like the drumming in this track?
Personally I need someone a bit sneakier – maybe ride some cymbals a bit at first, maybe brush the snare, but a dynamic build of some sort. One which both adds to the overall build, but also builds independently.
Do any drummers want to weigh in? What would you change? What do you hear when you listen critically?
Andy
What you fail to take into account is the “attention span durationator” which is = (& no longer than) 30 seconds.
Hence all builds have shot their load by second:30
You’re definitely right, attention span is short. however, I don’t think most people change a song that fast. Perhaps the last 20 seconds or so they may skip ahead, but I would argue most people listen to a good duration of a tune – especially if there’s a nice, different bridge section.