Pop Drum Patterns: Classic Drum Patterns For Modern Pop Music

August 17, 2024

Pop has been around as long as music has been popular. Modern POP has taken a distinct feel since roughly the 80s. And throughout the years, there's some drum patterns that remain roughly the same.

In this post I'll lean on tracks by Dua Lipa, Madonna, and Taylor Swift and break down their drum patterns.

Here's four pop drum patterns that represent pop drums. Use these if you're just starting out or if you need some inspiration.

In this blog post, I'll pick a song, show the drum pattern image, describe it, then embed the actual song.

Sometimes you hear drum patterns and the sound complex, but if you take a look and listen you'll see many are straightforward drum patterns.

Dua Lipa - Dance The Night Away

This is a standard four on the floor pattern found in many pop songs dating way back to the 80s and maybe even earlier. The main part can be found quite often, the breakdown is a bit unique to Dance The Night Away.

Here's the basic verse in MIDI overlaid the video.

Dua Lipa - Lost In Your Light

Lost In Your Light follows a similar pattern to Dance The Night Away but it's a bit simpler. Almost like a deconstructed four on the floor drum pattern. A pretty straight forward kick/snare pattern is all you really need to get the job done.

Madonna - Papa Don't Preach

Switching it up a bit and going back to the 80s, here's a classic track and drum pattern from Madonna.

This drum pattern starts with two kicks at the start of each bar to give it it's energy. The middle is pretty straightforward. The ending switches it up to add some variety.

Taylor Swift - Blank Space

Intro Text

Pop is dominated by Taylor Swift right now and her 1989 album really propelled - what was already a successful career - into the stratosphere.

I like Blank Space because it actually feels a bit hip hop to me. The way it adds kicks in "unconventional" steps for pop music. The spacing as well makes it feel a bit inspired by hip hop.

It makes sense as around this time, hiphop was and is, in a lot of ways pop.

Fading Out

Those are four simple pop drum patterns you can use for your pop music. If you're looking for many many more, check out the Pop MIDI Drums. It packed with 50 Pop Drum Patterns - MIDI files (with stems) and the PDF guide.