From bluesy licks to extreme shredding
Sheila Escovedo, better known as Sheila E, made her name in the 1980s drumming for Prince, though by her early twenties she had already worked with the likes of Lionel Richie, Marvin Gaye, Herbie Hancock, and Diana Ross. She's sometimes referred to as as the "Queen of Percussion."
Cindy Blackman started playing drums at age seven and is regarded by many as the best female drummer working today. She is Carlos Santana's touring drummer, who just happens to be her husband, too. She famously worked with Lenny Kravitz, and has worked alongside such greats as jazz saxophonist Pharoah Sanders and double bassist Ron Carter.
One half of the musical duo the Carpenters, Karen Carpenter was better known as a vocalist. But the drums were her first love, citing Joe Morello and Ringo Starr as her greatest influences. She often sang and played at the same time, both in the studio and live on stage. The duo's 1973 hit 'Yesterday Once More' features her drumming especially well.
Drumming runs in Tennessee Thomas' blood. Her father Pete Thomas is the drummer for Elvis Costello and the Attractions. She's best known as a founding member and drummer of the indie rock group The Like. Lately she's been playing in the all-female indie rock band NAF with Jenny Lewis and Erika Foster.
The drummer with the hugely successful all-female band The Bangles, Debbi Peterson also provides backup or lead vocals on nearly every track.
Demetra Plakas—Dee to everybody in the business—learned to play the drums while in high school. By age 25, she was drumming with the all-female rock band L7. The group is often associated with the grunge movement, with Dee's ferocious handiwork obligingly fusing elements of punk rock and heavy metal.
Formed in 1984, indie rock band Yo La Tengo has consisted of Ira Kaplan (guitars, piano, vocals), James McNew (bass, vocals), and Georgia Hubley (drums, piano, vocals). This solid continuity has established Hubley as one of the most reliable and technically accomplished female drummers working today.
Linda Pitmon honed her craft in high school, playing percussion in a band and later as part of an orchestra. She's worked variously with the Baseball Project and the Filthy Friends (alongside R.E.M.'s Peter Buck), and husband Steve Wynn's band, Miracle Three.
Music pundits regard Viola Smith as the first professional female drummer, working as she did with orchestras, swing bands, and popular music from as early as the 1920s. Incredibly, she was still occasionally drumming in her 107th year as one of the oldest living mainstream musicians.
Fanny, an American all-female rock band, achieved critical and to a lesser degree commercial success in the early 1970s. Like her bandmates, drummer Alice de Buhr was lauded for her musicianship, with the likes of the Beatles and David Bowie applauding the band's playing and stage craft.
Honey Lantree was one of those rare creatures, a female drummer in a band during the 1960s. She played with The Honeycombs, who in 1964 had a chart-topping hit on both sides of the Atlantic with 'Have I the Right?' Success was short-lived, however, and after the band split in 1967 Lantree returned to her old job as a hairdresser.
Patty Schemel was already drumming by age 11. Fourteen years later, on the recommendation of her husband Kurt Cobain, Courtney Love invited Schemel to join her band Hole. She later worked on several solo projects before co-founding the garage rock band Death Valley Girls with her brother Larry, in 2013.
Samantha Maloney also played in Hole, after Schemel left. But her real claim to fame is joining Mötley Crüe, filling in for then-drummer Randy Castillo. Maloney proved she could hold her own with the wildest of headbangers. In 2005, she toured with the Eagles of Death Metal as the drumming girl known as Hot Damn Sweet Sam.
Kate Schellenbach provided the thump and funk for the Beastie Boys as the band's founding drummer. She found greater fame, however, with the alternative rock/rap-rock group Luscious Jackson (pictured left with the band). Otherwise, Schellenbach's day job is as a producer, responsible for programs such as 'The Ellen DeGeneres Show' and, more recently, 'The Late Show with James Cordon.'
In 1979, Gina Schock joined the all-female rock band The Go-Go's. Her steady, urgent playing steered the band into a new, more danceable groove. 'We Got the Beat,' released in 1981, features Schock's drumming intro and helped take the band's debut album, 'Beauty and the Beat,' to second place on Billboard's year-end Top 100 of 1982.
Highly regarded as a rock drummer, Janet Weiss is known to many as a former member of Sleater-Kinney. Now working with indie outfit Quasi, Weiss plays a vintage Ludwig kit, which she's also used for appearances with Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks and Wild Flag.
Sandy West was one of music's great post-punk drummers. At age 15, she co-founded The Runaways with guitarist Joan Jett. By 1976, the band was recording and touring: the 1977 album 'Live in Japan' showcases West's remarkable strength on the skins. After the Runaways disbanded, she formed the Sandy West Band and toured the US West Coast in the 1980s and 1990s. She later became a drum teacher before cancer claimed her life at the age of 47.
One of most celebrated drummers and percussionists of her generation, Jody Linscott has worked with some of the biggest acts in the music industry, names that include Elton John, Paul McCartney, and Eric Clapton. She has toured as percussionist for The Who and Robert Palmer, using her own custom-built percussion rack to provide the variety of creative orchestral sounds she is famous for.
Music runs in Sue Hadjopoulos' family. No wonder, then, that she's regarded as one of her generation's finest exponents of drum and percussion. Hadjopoulos has provided rhythm and texture to the music of Joe Jackson, Simple Minds, The B-52's, and Cyndi Lauper, among others. She's also worked on a number of film and stage soundtracks.
Meg White found fame as one half of The White Stripes, a rock duo from Detroit formed in 1997. Complementing Jack White's guitarwork, Meg's primal drumbeat made her one of the key artists in the garage rock revival of the 2000s. But The White Stripes disbanded in 2011, and little has been heard of Meg White since.
A jazz drummer who has worked with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Herbie Hancock, and Al Jarreau, Terri Lyne Carrington is the recipient of a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Album—the first female musician to win a Grammy in this category.
Nikki Glaspie toured with Beyoncé for five years before coming to prominence in 2012 as the drummer in New Orleans' funkiest band, Dumpstaphunk. She's today one of music's most compelling stickwomen, recording and touring with The Nth Power.
Maureen (Moe) Tucker taught herself to play drums at age 19, after hearing the Rolling Stones. Her simple and unconventional style of playing caught the ear of Velvet Underground guitarist Sterling Morrison, and she was recruited into the band in early 1966. Her minimalist drumming and androgynous look melded well with the Velvets stage appearance and how they wanted to sound.
Scottish multi-percussionist Evelyn Glennie has been profoundly deaf since the age of 12. She works around her handicap by playing barefoot during live performances and studio recordings to feel the music, and trains other parts of her body to interpret beats and rhythms. Glennie has worked with Björk, Sting, and Mark Knopfler, among others, and has toured with various philharmonic orchestras.
German drummer Anika Nilles represents the new generation of aspiring musicians in that she launched her career on YouTube. She posted her first original compositions in 2013, and in 2017 her debut album, 'Pikalar,' was released comprising 10 instrumental tracks. Known for a slightly extravagant drum style, Nilles joined Jeff Beck's live band for his European tour in 2022—among the guitarist's last set of live appearances before his sudden death in January 2023.
Sources: (The Guardian) (The New York Times)
Hannah Welton was playing drums at the tender age of 12 before studying the instrument at the Chicago College of Performing Arts, where jazz fusion became her preferred style of playing. Her big break came after she was recruited to perform with Prince as a guest drummer. She later became a member of his full-time backing band, 3RDEYEGIRL.
As the drummer with American outfit Skillet, Jen Ledger has helped the band become one of the biggest names in Christian rock.
Besides her work behind the drumkit, Tobi Vail is a music critic and feminist activist. She's well known for being a founding member of the punk rock band Bikini Kill, her drum work emphasizing their characteristically abrasive and hardcore-influenced sound. Vail continues to play as an independent drummer for various other bands.
Roxy Petrucci is one of rock's hardcore drummers, responsible for the explosive percussion blasting out of heavy metal bands Madam X and Vixen. She previously worked with Roktopuss and JanetShareRoxyGina (or JSRG) and regularly plays on the heavy metal concert circuit.
The blend of Celtic pop-rock Irish band The Corrs is known for is very often guided by Caroline Corr's dependable drum work and percussion. She's also a gifted piano player and has shared vocal duties with her siblings.
Rina Suzuki numbers in a long line of contemporary female Japanese drummers, names that include Senri Kawaguchi and Sayaka Himeno. Suzuki is a member of the hugely popular all-female band Scandal. She's pictured second right with bandmates Tomomi Ogawa, Mami Sasazaki, and Haruna Ono.
Behind every great band is a great drummer. And while it's still rare to find a woman behind a kit, some of music's most compelling sticksmiths are in fact female. But who are those that have mastered drums and percussion in genres as diverse as rock, pop, jazz, and heavy metal?
Click through and discover the women who best keep time with the beat!
Music's best female drummers
Some of music's most compelling sticksmiths are women
MUSIC Drums
Behind every great band is a great drummer. And while it's still rare to find a woman behind a kit, some of music's most compelling sticksmiths are in fact female. But who are those that have mastered drums and percussion in genres as diverse as rock, pop, jazz, and heavy metal?
Click through and discover the women who best keep time with the beat!