10 Best Rock Drummers Of All Time
5. Travis Barker
In punk music, you don't really get a ton of virtuosos on any instrument. Just sprinkle in a few distorted chords, a fast tempo, and a ton of attitude and most modern punk bands get by just fine. Then again, most modern punk bands don't have Travis Barker.
Originally in the theatrical band the Aquabats, Barker didn't truly receive acclaim until he joined Blink-182 and set the punk landscape on fire. Rather than just sit back and play a simple punk beat, Barker contributed adrenaline-fueled fills and incendiary aggression into each performance he put to tape. This type of aggression even led to band members Tom Delonge and Mark Hoppus to rethink their riff writing, which gave more clever nuances to Blink's song arrangements.
Even when the band scaled things back on more reflective tracks, Barker's shuffle on "I Miss You" and impeccable stick work on "Always" were a tasty stand-out. Unable to be contained, Barker has even lent his chops to more hip hop based acts like Suicideboys and Yelawolf to name a few. So when someone says that playing punk rock is easy, just introduce them to pop-punk's resident drum virtuoso.