In Search of the Click Track

artist track

Gallery of drummers

  1. The Machine in I Love Rock'N'Roll by Britney Spears
  2. Stewart Copeland in So Lonely by The Police
  3. John Bohnam in Rock and Roll by Led Zeppelin
  4. Neil Peart in Stick it out by Rush
  5. Ginger Baker in Strange Brew by Cream
  6. Carl Palmer in Jeremy Bender by ELP
  7. Keith Moon in Won't Get Fooled Again by The Who
  8. Lars Ulrich in Whiplash by Metallica
  9. Bernard Purdie in Say it Loud by James Brown
  10. Mike Portnoy in Lie by Dream Theater
  11. Daniel Adair in Animals by Nickelback
  12. Buddy Rich in Donna Lee by Buddy Rich
  13. Dave Grohl in Heart-shaped box by Nirvana
  14. Steve Gadd in Got You On My Mind by Eric Clapton
  15. Art Blakey in Ya Ya by Art Blakey
  16. Meg White in Blue Orchid by The White Stripes
  17. Spencer Dryden in White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane
  18. Trent's Computer in The Perfect Drug by Nine Inch Nails
  19. The Machine in Such Great Heights by The Postal Service
Instructions: Use this application to look at tempo plots for any song to see which bands have a machine controlling the heartbeat of the band. Type in the name of an artist and/or track and get a click plot of the track. If a machine is setting the beat for the song, the click plot will show only small deviations from the average tempo. A flat line means a machine is setting the beat. A machine score of above 90% probably means a machine is setting the beat. Likewise, long runs of machine-like drumming are indicative of the use of a click track or a machine to set the beat. For more info see this post in Music Machinery: In search of the click track (revisited)