Guitar, Drum and Bass

Stewart Copeland explores the drums as the founding instrument of popular modern music. Beats that travelled from Africa via New Orleans and across the world are the consistent force behind musical evolution. Stewart plays with some of the most inspiring drummers of the last 50 years, including John Densmore of The Doors, Chad Smith of The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Prince’s musical director Sheila E, New Order’s Stephen Morris and Foo Fighters’ Taylor Hawkins. He goes dancing in New Orleans, builds his own bass drum pedal and checks out hot new bands on Santa Monica beach.

Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads and Tom Tom Club celebrates the contribution of bass to popular music, tracing its progress from doo-wop to drum and bass, grime and beyond.

Lenny Kaye, Patti Smith’s guitarist, explains why the quest for new guitar sounds has driven the history of pop music, from Les Paul’s first guitar to Ed Sheeran’s looper pedals.