Vocals, snare, bass [Baby Love]

[carlier74]

"...if you’ve got strong vocals, snare, and bass, the rest of the production can pretty much afford to be window-dressing…"

I've always felt that snare is the secret driver of all pop music. (With tambourine in close second place...)

To an extent, but as they say "no-one goes around whistling the snare drum"... I kind of like to think that with vocals, snare, and bass, you're pretty much guaranteed to have melody, rhythm, and harmony/counterpoint, which is why it's so efficient. To an extent, I'd also lump kick in with bass, as I think the bass line's rhythmic definition is also crucial in a lot of cases.

But the rest is often just filler...

Jonathan Richman did it without bass!