Harkening back to a time when rock and roll was straightforward and simple, the retro Detroit duo,
The White Stripes, gave the genre a much needed shot in the arm in the early years of the new millennium. The White Stripes, a divorced couple—Jack (guitar and vocals) and Meg (drums, vocals, percussion) White—billed themselves as brother and sister and named their band for the way they wore alternating red and white outfits on stage. The duo broke out in 2001’s White Blood Cells,” which contained such hit White Stripes songs as “The Union Forever” and “Fell in Love W
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ith a Girl.” The White Stripes truly became big time rock stars when the video to "Fell in Love with a Girl" was nominated for four MTV Video Awards, including Best Video of the Year (alongside
Eminem and *NSYNC!), Breakthrough Video, Best Special Effects in a Video, and Best Editing in a Video. The duo also scored great publicity by doing four gigs with
The Strokes, two apiece in the bands’ respective hometowns, and appeared on numerous television shows.
White Blood Cells put the White Stripes on the verge of stardom, and their next album, Elephant made them household names. Recorded over a two-week stretch in London on an eight-track machine that dated from the early '60’s the band came up with such full-bodied gems as “
Black Math” and “Girl, You Have No Faith.” In 2005 the Stripes returned with Get Behind Me Satan, an amazingly diverse album that spanned disco-metal and light, marimba-driven pop and was written and recorded in two weeks that spring. The album won Best Alternative Music Album at the 2006 Grammy Awards. In February 2007, the band announced that they had completed work on their studio album entitled Icky Thump. The album was recorded at Nashville's Blackbird Studio and took almost three weeks to record — the longest of any White Stripes album to date. Despite their yen for experimentation, the White Stripes have exemplified rock and roll simplicity through the years, and have demonstrated a love for pure folk rock not found in many other garage rock bands.
