There are some drum hooks that are absolutely simple, and are powerful because of one thing: they just don't stop. Here are two examples from the 80s (which is as good a time as any to point new visitors to the FAQs -- especially the part about why the music at songwritinghooks.com tends not to be the current Top 40).
Hear the hook: Icicle Works, Whisper to a Scream MP3, driving drum beat Copyright info
Hear the hook: Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Relax MP3, the unstoppable pounding Copyright info
In both cases, the core rhythm just won't quit, and continues pretty well from the moment the song starts to the moment the song ends (a little more true for the Frankie Goes to Hollywood song than for the Icicle Works song.)
When I encounter songs like this, with an invariable drum beat that keeps going and going, I always feel it in a primal way. On one hand, it's like I'm faced with a force of nature that I couldn't stop if I wanted to. "Relax" does that to me for sure, especially since the pounding beat is as much created by the drums as it is by the singular bass note.
At the same time, it's kind of like a heartbeat. Heartbeats don't have fills played on the toms, or cymbal crashes. It's just the same beat over and over and over.
Sister Golden Hair hooked me on the drums.
Posted by: Jennifer Sherrard | 06/09/2009 at 04:59 AM
Hmm, thanks! I'll have to give a listen to the drums -- the hook I hear in Sister Golden Hair is the twangy slide guitar before the first verse starts, and the "doo-wop-a-doo-wop" singalong at the end.
Posted by: Rob | 06/09/2009 at 09:08 AM
Two more additions:
"Chrome Plated Heart" by Melissa Etheridge
"Birdland" by Weather Report
And arguably, "Takin' Care of Business" by BTO
Posted by: Rob | 06/10/2009 at 01:01 AM