Drone and beat, nothing special (7)
I believe the answer is:
humdrum
'nothing special' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are adjectives.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?
'drone and beat' is the wordplay.
'drone' becomes 'hum' (drone can mean to make a humming sound).
'and' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'beat' becomes 'drum' (synonyms).
'hum'+'drum'='HUMDRUM'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for humdrum that I've seen before include "Far from exciting" , "Tediously repetitous or lacking in variety" , "Dull and uninteresting" , "Dull, monotonous" , "Everyday, boring" .)