Never Gonna Give You Up
Rick Astley · 1987
a staple for the recognizable stop-time snare fill and dance pulse
- Artist
- Rick Astley
- Year
- 1987
- Genre
- dance-pop
- Drummer
- programmed (Stock Aitken Waterman)
- Tempo
- 113 bpm
- Time
- 4/4
- Feel
- bouncy programmed 80s dance-pop with a signature snare fill
- Difficulty
- beginner
Drummer's Quick-Start
Practice tempos
Woodshed
68bpm
Building
90bpm
Target
113bpm
The feel
A bouncy programmed 80s dance-pop with a signature snare fill in 4/4 around 113 BPM. A comfortable mid-tempo — lock the backbeat first, then shape the dynamics.
What to watch
- •Play to a metronome and prize consistency over speed — even time is the whole game.
How to learn it
Well-known tutorials exist for this one — use the links below, and play along from your own copy.
Generated from this song's groove profile — analysis only, no notation. A human-reviewed AI brief with a full groove breakdown, key moments and song map replaces this as briefs roll out.
Learn it
Find drum tutorials on YouTube ↗iDrum links to where lessons already live — we don't host recordings or publish transcriptions. Play along from your own music.
Discussion
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