The white stripes

Detroit minimalist rock duo (specifically, southwest Detroit
minimalist rock duo) the White Stripes --
Jack White, guitar and vocals, Meg White, drums -- formed in 1997
(Bastille Day, to be precise) with the idea of making simple rock
& roll music. From the red and white peppermint candy motif of
their debut singles, self-titled album, and stage show to their
on-the-surface rudimentary style, they succeeded wildly and
immediately with that mission. Their first recordings were a mix of
garage rock, blues, and the occasional show tune. In frontman Jack
(a former drummer for Detroit country outfit Goober & the
Peas), the White Stripes have a formidable songwriter, guitar
player, and vocalist capable of both morphing between styles and
changing the musical styles themselves; ranging from the folk blues
of Blind Willie McTell to soaring Kinks-esque pop and narrative pop
tunes worthy of Cole Porter and into deepest Captain Beefheart
territory within the span of 15 minutes is not an uncommon
listening experience with either the White Stripes live show or on
record. In drummer Meg, the White Stripes have a minimalist
percussionist who seems to sense intuitively exactly when to not
play. The White Stripes are grounded in punk and blues, but the
undercurrent to all of their work has been the aforementioned
striving for simplicity, a love of American folk music, and a
careful approach to intriguing, emotional, and evocative lyrics not
found anywhere else in the modern punk, or garage rock (or amongst
post-modern "blues" practitioners such as Jon Spencer, for that
matter).
While they may have sprung from the Detroit rock scene (and they
remain regular fixtures on the Detroit club circuit with Jack
producing or working with many Detroit-area bands), the White
Stripes quickly gained a national following after two successive
tours with indie rockers Pavement and Sleater-Kinney in 1999 and
2000. The White Stripes released their second LP, De Stijl, in 2000
and it further spread the group's reputation. They followed its
release with successful tours of Japan and Australia and entered
the Memphis studio of renowned producer Doug Easley for 2001's
White Blood Cells. The album was a critical smash and the White
Stripes soon found themselves, along with the Strokes and the
Hives, at the forefront of the new wave of rock & roll bands
poised to take over the world. The band certainly did their best to
acheive world domination, appearing on Late Night with David
Lettterman, being written about in Time, the New Yorker and
Entertainment Weekly, playing the MTV Movie Awards and having their
video for "Fell in Love with a Girl" in heavy rotation on MTV. They
also made the tough decision to jump to a major label; White Blood
Cells was reissued on V2 in January of 2002 and their first two
records followed suit in June. The White Stripes truly became big
time rock stars when their "Fell in Love with a Girl" clip 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. That summer
the group also played four triumphant shows with the Strokes, two
apiece in the bands' respective hometowns. In spring 2003 their
fourth full-length Elephant -- recorded in two weeks at London's
Toerag Studio and dedicated to "the death of the sweetheart" --
arrived to nearly unanimous critical acclaim. In 2005, the Stripes
returned with Get Behind Me Satan, a dizzyingly diverse album that
spanned disco-metal and light, marimba-driven pop and was written
and recorded in two weeks that spring. ~ Chris Handyside, All Music
Guide