I saw someone tweet out saying the drum patterns makes the style of the song. Basically if you take a reggaeton song and swap out the drums for trap drums, the song is know a trap song.
And that makes sense to me. The drums are the backbone of song and tell you, the listener, what type of song it is.
If you're a producer, you should know what makes up different styles of drum patterns. I'll cover 20 in the style of hiphop and pop to get you started.
The specific drum pattern genre's we'll cover
I'll use a drum sequencer to illustrate the patterns. Let's get into it
Modern HipHop Drum Patterns
Modern hiphop is in an intersting space. It currently influenced by trap, but also Boom Bap but at the same time holds true to it's early roots from Funk and where it really found its footing from the Golden Age.
We'll get to Trap and Boom Bap specifically, but here's a hiphop drum pattern that encapsulates the heart and soul of modern hiphop.
Here's the pattern.
And here's a more depth article on Four Essential HipHop Drum Patterns.
Boom Bap Drum Patterns
Boom Bap beats tend to be not as complex. Simpler beats, but not basic. Simple, but not chill. They have a nice rough hard sounds to them. A unique trademark of boombap beats is a kick or snare sneaking in when you don't expect it.
And if sounds a bit loose to you, that's do to swing, a common characteristic in boombap drums. It's one of four tips to make amazing drum patterns.
Here's the pattern:
Trap Drum Patterns
Trap drum patterns are characterized by the snare on the 3 and the 7 beat. And of course the packed in hi hats and hi hat rolls.
Here's the pattern
R&B Drum Patterns
R&B is an interesting one. The drum patterns find a balance of being laid back but there's still a lot going on. Mostly you'll see more hats and percussion. For example you'll see a crash and simple tom fills.
Here's the pattern
LoFi Drum Patterns
LoFi beats are a bit sparse and chill as it fits the LoFi genre. They should be laid back.
Here's the pattern
For more in depth on making LoFI Drums we have an exhaustive article covering the sounds of lofi drums, patterns, loops, and recommended plugins for lofi.
Reggaeton Drum Patterns
Reggaeton has a very specific drum pattern. There is the core reggaeton drum pattern and the four on the floor pattern for reggaeton. It all boils down to a main pattern that determines the reggaeton sound.
Here's the pattern
Drill Drum Patterns
Drill is characterized by a specific hi hat pattern and the snares on the 3 and the 8. Both of those are illustrated below. Follow that pattern for the drill sound.
This drill beat is broken down in this article: how to make a drill beat.
Here's the pattern
Pop Drum Patterns
Most of pop drum patterns are characterized by the four on the floor pattern.
Here's the pattern
Fills Drum Patterns
All beats should include fills to add variety. They don't have to be too fancy, simple fills will do. Below is an example of a simple fill.
Here's the pattern.
There's a TON of ways to do fills. Here's an article outlining ten simple drum fills.
Fading Out
There's ten drum patterns for HipHop every producer should know. These are obviously just the basic patterns and there's so much more you could do. Check out the MIDI drum patterns and guides for a wide range of drum patterns.