Most of the commercial music you hear the drummer is just keeping the beat strong throughout, and will fill in just before a line the band wants emphasized and of course during section changes, and during breaks they will vary their playing only slightly just to break it up. Every instrument should only play as needed to make the song stay interesting to the listener, over playing is a mood killer no matter what instrument it is. Plug in the lead guitar on band in a box before you hit force track to simple arrangement and see how annoying it can be. What happens just like sometimes in live settings you get a perfect sounding track until someone or in biab case the lead guitar player or it could be any of the instruments starts playing smoke on the water; when you are asking it to play Love Me Tender; it goes off tangent and you can feel the band lose some momentum because your ear automatically knows; that just does not sound right. Thankfully they added the simple arrangement feature; cause some of the old timers will tell you there was a time you held onto your seat waiting for what was a beautiful track to go off the rails. I call them the ego maniac tracks. Of course as it is with any instrument; there are times when you will get a chance to show how good a drummer you are; drums more than any instrument i believe is about feeling when the need to add for spice. These professional groups you hear are most of the time playing with guys that eat sleep their craft; and so they have learned by trial and error. My ex father in law once told me about a time in a recording session he did in Nashville. He came in with the song he wrote, the band listened to it once; one of them charted it. and he stepped in front of the mic and they played it flawless. But these were guys who have played so much it just comes natural, as it will eventually come to you as well the more you hone your craft.

My Tunes

Psalm 57:7 My heart, O God, is steadfast, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and make music.