Music Book Review: Kick It: A Social History of the Drum Kit by Matt Brennan

Kick It: A Social History of the Drum Kit
by Matt Brennan (Music 786.9 Bre)

While it sometimes seems like the drum kit has been around forever, it’s one of the youngest common musical instruments, having only developed into its modern form around 100 years ago. As instruments go, it has evolved quite quickly, and largely in response to the needs of music in the modern era. In Kick It, Matt Brennan focuses specifically on its development from a few captivating perspectives. Rather than following the usual path of chronological history, each chapter focuses on a unique aspect of the drum kit and drummers from a more sociological perspective, as drummers still sometimes feel like they’re toiling away in the background of musical conversations. The book starts off addressing racist stereotypes of drummers from previous centuries, contrasting them with the clearly forward-thinking percussionists that developed the drum kit out of necessity. The next chapter addresses the loud, noisy, sometimes boisterous aspects of the drum kit, and how its eventual inclusion in most forms of popular music has shifted the conception of “noise.” This is followed by chapters discussing the evolution of performance practice and technique on this new musical instrument, the difficulties of balancing innovation and creativity with providing a steady, familiar beat, the employment prospects of playing the drum kit, and new kinds of technology that have come to co-exist with drums rather than replacing them.

 

It’s a fun book packed with lesser-known parts of recent music history, and I think readers who are drummers or not will find it fascinating. One theme that carries through most chapters is that drummers are often thought of as a kind of musical underdog class, while they quietly (or kind of loudly, to be more accurate!) continue to hone their craft, making the music they play with more varied and interesting along the way. You can’t help but to admire and respect the many drummers and their unique contributions, both technical and musical, documented throughout the book.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Uncharted: Creativity and the Expert Drummer by Bill Bruford, Women Drummers: A History from Rock and Jazz to Blues and Country by Angela Smith or Drumming at the Edge of Magic by Mikey Hart.)

 

( Wikipedia entry for Matt Brennan )

 

Recommended by Scott S.
Polley Music Librarary

 

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