As drum machines were becoming more human during the 1970s and ’80s, human drummers were becoming more robotic. Electronic drums expanded drummers’ palette of possible sounds. In the recording studio, producers’ desire for control led to greater use of ‘click tracks’ that musicians would be expected to follow, which could then be deleted. Session drummers were celebrated for their ability to play on top of or behind the click, giving the music a human feel while still being metronomic. They were prized for their consistency in the studio. Multitrack studio recording meant that band members no longer had to play at the same time as each other, and even that the constituent parts of the drum kit could each be recorded separately.
This musical Fordism – a regimented, synchronised division of labour – elicited a backlash from those who supported a lo-fi alternative. Bands like Nirvana made much of their rejection of all things automated. Death Cab for Cutie started a campaign against Auto-Tune to ‘bring back the blue note’. Dave Grohl, accepting a Grammy in 2012, gave a shout-out to team human: ‘It’s not about being perfect, it’s not about sounding absolutely correct, it’s not about what goes on in a computer.’ One man, calling his campaign the ‘Society for the Rehumanization of American Music’ began selling ‘Drum machines have no soul’ bumper stickers. But, as Sousa and countless others discovered, authenticity is slippery. Arguments about what constitutes real music normally hide other concerns about who has power, who defines cultural taste, and who is able to access music-making. Those who learnt with their friends on cheap guitars may worry that kids with drum machines will have different, more solitary musical apprenticeships. The technologies of concern change, but the debates remain the same.
Just as the pianola had done a century earlier, drum machines freed producers from the limits of human bodies and premodern percussion. Bass drums could be tuned to produce bass lines, tempos could increase, rhythms could become more complex. Once new sounds such as the 808 bass and skittering ‘trap hi-hats’ became ubiquitous in 21st-century music, some drummers saw a new challenge in replicating these software creations. Live humans, augmented by electronics, opened up new styles.