Is there any sort of drum-kick-placement theory?

[You Foria]

As I have progressed as a producer I've noticed the tracks of mine that have similar kick placement also have the same melody placements in the same common keys (for example string chords on every beat, rapid pluck melodies) and was wondering if there is any sort of placement strategies based on the melody of a track

 

[scrapheaper]

Obviously you can do whatever you like if you think it sounds good but if there were a rule it would be a kick on beat 1 and a snare/clap on beats 2 and 4.
This often gets temporarily broken for doing drum fills, but for the main beat in popular music it's not often broken. The exceptions to this rule do sound really cool though when they do pop up.

The rhythm of chords and pads varies a lot- it can be very syncopated and rhythmic or very simple just one chord on every beat.

What I call 'true melodies'- ones you want to sing when you hear them aren't usually very syncopated, but quite often if you have a funky riff instead of a main melody that will be more complex rhythmically.

One way of syncopating is using this idea https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtZ74JdxCt0&t=1s The video is very theory heavy but you don't need to understand all of it to use the idea, and it's much easier to do in a DAW than it is to play

 

[localspace]

Not for me.. I tend to work from the drums on up and don't really use a lot of melody: just a bunch of stabs, one-hits.. some longer pads and that's usually it. It sounds oldschool and simple and that's just how I likes it

 

[Epsilon-144]

yeah, there is structure to these drum rhythms. You can make your own, and that's how burial and everyone gets attention (make something unique), but the really well known genres have a distinct pattern. There are books and websites that talk about these patterns. I think making a Cumbia beat is the pretty tricky. The kicks are on 1 2, 3, and 4. But first snare or high hat is on the "a" (when using "1 e and a" counting) before the 2nd and 4th kick, and the second snare of high hat is in the middle between kick 2 and 3, and 4 and 1.

It's hard to explain in words...pictures are worth 1,000 words when we're talking about this stuff.