In real life I mean.

The classifieds section of this site has a billion guitarists/bassists/vocalists/whatever advertising their services, and nobody's replying. A drummer pops up and everybody's falling over themselves.

Certainly tallies with my own band experience: we went through four average-as-shit drummers until finally we clubbed together and got our sub-average singer a basic drum kit for his birthday (he'd always expressed an interest and was a very musical guy, just not much chop as a singer/frontman). He turned out to be surprisingly OK, but drums were still always our weakest link.

So why is it apparently so hard to play good drums? my theories:

1: Kits are expensive, large and noisy, so parents steer their kids towards more domestically friendly instruments

2: Lack of sexiness, the drummer sits at the back and misses out on all the super rock action enjoyed by the standups

3: Everybody wants to be Keith Moon or Bill Bruford, nobody wants to be Ringo or Moe Tucker. So novice drummers waste valuable formative years trying to perfect flashy rolls & jazzy tricks, instead of learning how to nail the solid 4-4 metronomic stomp that is, after all, the soul of rock & roll.