The recent thread on symmetry got me thinking again about a pet musing I have.  With all of our differences of opinions on setup, drum construction, tuning, style, etc... why is it that the majority of stuff that I hear sounds sooooo similar?  Even with my unique drums, setup, tuning, playing.. when I hear myself on a tape I say hmmmm, sounds pretty typical .  Obviously, we have some common experience (western music, i.e.,jazz/pop/rock..) or common heroes that many of us are trying desperately to copy or emulate or teachers that fit us into a fairly consistant mold.  But, we (me) still want to hang on to our uniqueness.  Some of the most unique individuals end up getting radio play but many if not most radio stations, at least that ones with strong signals are so predictable - half the time, I can guess the groove and meter before changing to the station.

Now an experienced player can hear subtle (or not so subtle) differences between players but the average listener could not tell a Gadd groove from a Weckl, or Jordan, etc... so do we all end up serving the average listener, whether we want to or not, even though we are striving to be different?  Are you striving for incremental uniqueness?  I'll stop rambling here cause I'm curious how others feel about the subject...

First off - great reply from Chris - particularly "By and large I think people spend way too much time thinking about the unique voice.... I sometimes think people assume you can bypass the hardwork by becoming unique instead."

I would add - Quit worrying about the "average listener"?

The deciding factor of what gigs you play, who you get to play with,  and who will eventually hear you play will not be determined by any average listeners... it will be determined by experienced players.  Some of which may favor "uniqueness", others "rock solid", others "sensitive" - and a myriad of factors that are way beyond the awareness of the "average listener". Most of these factors will certainly effect the music and the end listener, though just not in ways they may be able to catalog and express.

So IMO it is ALL about pleasing other players. And many of them (and all of them as you move up the food chain) can certainly tell the difference between Gadd, Weckl, and Jordan - and have an opinion of how each may or may not serve their musical interests.

Also - unique is a very broad term - in that, everything is unique in subtle ways and nothing is, in that you can always hear an artist's or drummer's influences, etc.

So for me, whether it is pop, rock, free jazz, big bands, or whatever, it has always been about figuring out what I have to get together as a player in order for "those guys" to want to play with me. And every playing situation from the first garage band to a big league stadium tour is still all about a player that other players want to play with.

And if history or the fans hear something they like and deem it unique, then woo hoo - some drummer just made the history books. But that's all after the fact. Before you can please the fans and history, you've got please the other players and artists.

David

Excellent points all and I really do value your input.  I'm still having trouble understanding why there is sooo much "sameness" in popular music.  Don't worry, I'm not obsessing but it does puzzle me that on one hand, our culture elevates uniqueness to deity but the more this is done, the more things all start to look and sound the same.  This may be part of the reason. We are trained, for the most part, to fit in and there are relatively few deciding what the mold is (audience, band leader, producer, radio program director, corporate suit).  And of course there is the commercial side to everything.  I'm not saying this is bad, in fact I find most of my artistic expression and enjoyment on my instrument in essentially copying what others have done and I work at improving that skill.  If I could just do that very well and be a solid journeyman drummer, I'd be happy.  I just find it interesting that as Chris points, we musicians spend a lot of time talking about, thinking about, looking for our unique voice while 99% of the time we are unique in degrees or only incrementally. 

We all have unique personalities, and that gets translated to the drums, IMO.  That's why people can sound vastly different even when playing similar beats.  The untrained ear might not notice a difference, but as long as they're digging it, that's cool. 

before i was a musician i listened to alot more music. sometimes certain lines would give me chills and id heard a cool guitar part.
then i got into bass and then drums and i got alot more critical of music. its rare that ill get chills like i used to. its nice when it happens though
a plus though....is that i do recognize parts of the music that i wouldnt hvae noticed before i was a musician. and thats quite nice.

i bet old movies you used to love you cant stand now..

No apology necessary! I think you make an excellent point.  I have a general impression that much of todays popular music is rehashing, rediscovering, remaking and sounding very similar BUT I do love a good live performance with real musicians for many of the reasons you stated.