No Drums - No Dice

I came to the conclusion long ago that if a song has no drums, it is not for me.  A lot of prog has no drums and be it space, psychedelic, ambient, electronic, just soft music or whatever, if there are no drums, 99% of the time, I'll pass.  I'm not talking of shorter pieces that may help fill out a concept album, but albums where the bulk of the material is sans drums.  And it's not like my favorite instrument is drums.  It is just a litmus test on how I feel about the music. Any thought?

As with every type of music so rudimentary, it's impossible to generalise.

cynthiasmallet wrote: As with every type of music so rudimentary, it's impossible to generalise.

With the size of the sample that I have heard and my almost total disdain for it all, I think it is easy to generalize.

I guess, obviously, we're limiting this to Prog since I listen toa  great deal of music without drums.   There is no instrument that is necessary for me in Prog and there are a great many "prog" songs that I like that don't have drums, and a number of albums that I like very much that don't have them.  Commonly, if the drums aren't being played or integrated in an interesting way, then I'd rather they not be there at all.  Generally, I do prefer for there to be "percussion," but so many instruments can be used for that.

I like prog regardless of lack of whatever instrument.

I really dislike standard rock drumming and often I'd prefer them to be omitted entirely.

blah blah yeah I know lappy hates rock mnmnmnmn

I do enjoy there being drums, but I don't find its needed for me to enjoy the album/song. I guess I might be more inclinded to like music with drums, but there is of course music with drums I don't like.

Art Zoyd is one of my favorite bands, and they dont usually have drums!

When I read the title of this thread, and saw the voting, I was reminded of a thread which ran not so long ago: "How much Rock in your Prog" (http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=44144&KW=Rock+in+prog&PN=1)

Then I was already surprised that many pple here don't value much the "Rock" part of prog ROCK. Here it shows again I think... For me, concerning prog ROCK music, the drums (or any other form of percussion that accents the music and makes the typical "rock" feel), is an essential part of prog ROCK and therefore I agree with the opening post.

BaldFriede wrote: Soul Dreamer wrote: When I read the title of this thread, and saw the voting, I was reminded of a thread which ran not so long ago: "How much Rock in your Prog" (http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=44144&KW=Rock+in+prog&PN=1) Then I was already surprised that many pple here don't value much the "Rock" part of prog ROCK. Here it shows again I think... For me, concerning prog ROCK music, the drums (or any other form of percussion that accents the music and makes the typical "rock" feel), is an essential part of prog ROCK and therefore I agree with the opening post. I certainly do value the "Rock" part of Prog Rock; I am a drummer myself. You can really rock without drums though; anyone who has ever been to a solo concert of Peter Hammill will agree with me. And he is just one example.

I agree that it DOESN'T have to be drums, but it surely makes it more likely to rock...eg. Harmonium's  "Si on avait...." doesn't have drums, and although it's beautiful music, it really doesn't rock. Peter Hammill I don't know well enough to discuss here... IMO other instruments can also deliver a "Rock" feel to music (piano or other instruments which can carry the "beat") but generally the drums is the best instrument for that...(IMO).