It's a question for pop arrangers/composers/drummers.

How often in pop/rock music do you have drum breaks which are a 1/4 or 2/4 bar long, meaning that your kick and snare may be "reversed" after the break if you had left your DAW in 4/4 all song long?

 

found this:
https://mysongalive.wordpress.com/2012/12/04/top-10-songs-with-odd-timing/

apparenlty more common than I thought

 

Thanks for the link - I love stuff like this. It doesn't really address you question though as throwing a 2 count between 4 counts doesn't alter where the kick and snare hit if following a grid, not like adding a 3 or 5 count would if you dropped it between a bunch of 4 counts.

One of my faves is the missing beat in Heart of Glass that shouldn't work but really does. That one alters where the kick and snare would land on a grid - but legend has it that it was actually the result of a tape splicing mistake, not intentionally played/recorded that way.

I tried playing a bit with counts in a China Girl cover I did last year. At the end of the track I shortened the phrases to 4 / 3 / 4 / 3 ... instead of 4 / 4 / 4 / 4.