As said above, the drum in British culture has mostly been a military thing, plus of course in Scotland at least the town drummers, who it seems sometimes went in tandem with town pipers. I can think of no drums / drummers in old pictures or photos of groups of Scots musicians. Drummers in Scottish country dance bands employ a particularly military snare-led beat, derived I expect from pipe band drummers - another military invention. Drumming in US popular music seems to have come in from the military also, as with brass instruments. It is too simplistic as a total explanation, but ex-military instruments from post American Civil War days were at least part of the source. Until the black influence loosened up the sound of drummers, they were useful for enforcing the march beat, ordering the movements of troops, and of course banging about at the back of orchestras.