Contemporary drummers and percussionists such as Neil Peart, Mitch Mitchell, and John Bonham could all point to him as a major influence. Moon himself was taught to play by one of the loudest drummers at the time, Carlo Little. His continuing influence is also evident in the style of modern drummers such as Jeremiah Green, and Moon's organic, rolling, anarchic, flowingly controlled yet also out-of-control style remains an influence on popular music today.Moon initially played in the style of American surf rock and R&B drummers, utilizing grooves and fills of those genres, but playing them much louder and with more authority. He was also heavily influenced by jazz drummer and fellow showman Gene Krupa.
Moon started off on various 4 or 5 piece drumsets, but made the move to a British Premier double bass kit in late 1965. This was inspired by a conversation he had with Ginger Baker, who told Moon that he had ordered an American Ludwig double bass set and was waiting for it to arrive. Moon decided to simply take two Premier drumsets and put them together, thus making him the first rock drummer to use a double bass drumset. This new equipment widened Moon's playing to an enormous degree. Specifically, he abandoned his hi-hat cymbals almost entirely and started basing his grooves more on a double bass ostinato consisting of eight note flams, and a wall of white noise created by riding a crash or ride cymbal. On top of this he would play fills and cymbal accents. This would become his trademark style, and can be heard at its best on the Who's 1970 Live at Leeds and 1971's Who's Next albums.