8Mile
Platinum Member
I've had conversations with some of my friends who teach and a couple of them have reported seeing fewer students interested in drum set in recent years. They still get lots of kids wanting to learn how to play snare drum or tenors in marching bands, but not as many wanting to play drum set.
One friend's theory is that it's simply easier to play music by yourself than deal with the challenges of being in a band. You can make music yourself with a keyboard and computer. If you look to the most popular music today, actual bands are few and far between. There's an artist out front, maybe a collaboration, but not the traditional band with a drummer, bassist, etc. So less bands means less drummers who are visible to the average music fan today.
My buddy challenged me to name what current drummers are so famous that the average young person who isn't a musician would know them by name. I think we agreed on Questlove. Dave Grohl and Travis Barker, maybe, but those guys started in the 90s. And that was about it. By contrast, when I was going to high school, even casual music fans would read about their favorite bands and knew who Alex Van Halen and Neil Peart were.
Of course, this is based on a small sample of people who teach in a suburban area in southeast Michigan. For those of you who teach or are in the thick of the industry in other parts, what are you seeing? I'd like to hear other perspectives.
One friend's theory is that it's simply easier to play music by yourself than deal with the challenges of being in a band. You can make music yourself with a keyboard and computer. If you look to the most popular music today, actual bands are few and far between. There's an artist out front, maybe a collaboration, but not the traditional band with a drummer, bassist, etc. So less bands means less drummers who are visible to the average music fan today.
My buddy challenged me to name what current drummers are so famous that the average young person who isn't a musician would know them by name. I think we agreed on Questlove. Dave Grohl and Travis Barker, maybe, but those guys started in the 90s. And that was about it. By contrast, when I was going to high school, even casual music fans would read about their favorite bands and knew who Alex Van Halen and Neil Peart were.
Of course, this is based on a small sample of people who teach in a suburban area in southeast Michigan. For those of you who teach or are in the thick of the industry in other parts, what are you seeing? I'd like to hear other perspectives.