10 Best Female Drummers Of All Time
The most iconic female stick-wielders in music history.
They may be hidden at the back of the band, but drummers are unmistakably the driving force behind most music, propelling the beat forward with every hit.
Ever since the modern drum kit emerged in the early 1900s, complexity and playing techniques have continued to evolve from the early years of jazz, bebop and swing all the way through to rock ’n’ roll, punk, metal and beyond.
Whenever we think about the greatest drummers of all time, it's typically names such as Buddy Rich, Keith Moon, Ginger Baker, or Lars Ulrich who stick out as being some of the greatest to wield a pair of sticks. But there are just as many incredible female drummers who have carved a legacy for themselves within the historically male-dominated music industry.
Ever since there have been drums, women have been playing them. Leagues above some of their male counterparts, these drummers may not be as well-known, but they're nevertheless some of the most influential names in the business.
From early jazz bands all the way to modern rock, here are some of the greatest female drummers to have ever blasted out some frantic beats.
10. Moe Tucker
Proving that you don’t need to be a technical virtuoso to be a fantastic drummer, Moe Tucker of revolutionary punk band The Velvet Underground showed listeners that sometimes less rally can be more.
Learning to play the drums when she was 19 by playing along to songs on a snare drum, Tucker found herself joining the Velvet Underground when original percussionist Angus Maclise quit when he thought the band sold out by taking a paying gig (it was the 60s).
Guitarist Sterling Morrison remembered that she, being the younger sister of one of his friends, played drums and came to hear her play. Despite the band not originally wanting any women in the band, Tucker nevertheless became a permanent feature of the group.
In keeping with the band’s avant-garde style, Tucker didn’t play a conventional kit. Instead, she was known for playing a stripped-down set consisting of snare, bass drum, and tom toms with a set of mallets. Cymbals were scarcely used as she believed that they drowned out the sounds of the rest of the instruments and were unnecessary for the drummer to keep the tempo.
While Tucker isn’t the most skilled drummer, she’s arguably one of the most ground-breaking.