Forty-five years provides a lot of perspective on the artists, styles, and techniques Modern Drummer has covered, as well as how those subjects informed the drum community from year to year. Any magazine editor will tell you that choosing cover subject matter is often an exercise in gut feelings, commercial realities (who is the hot commodity of the month?), newsstand strategies (how can we move more magazines off the racks and sell via our online shop?), publicist intervention (we have “x” artist available now—exclusively for you), release schedules (an album or tour is imminent), personal interactions (artist “x” wants to know if we can cover his or her new project), and even advertiser tips (one of our artists has a great story for you). Ultimately, what all of this leads to—if a magazine is smart and lucky enough to stay in the game for decades—is a timeline of communal interests. […]