The White Stripes

The White Stripes is an American rock band, formed in 1997 in Detroit, Michigan. The group consists of songwriter Jack White (vocals, guitar and piano) and Meg White (drums and occasional vocals).

After releasing several singles and three albums within the Detroit independent music underground, The White Stripes rose to prominence in 2002, as part of the garage rock revival scene. Their successful albums White Blood Cells and Elephant drew them attention from a large variety of media outlets in the United States and the United Kingdom.

The White Stripes use a low-fidelity, do-it-yourself approach to writing and recording. Their music features a melding of punk and blues influences and a raw simplicity of composition, arrangement, and performance. The duo is also noted for their fashion and design aesthetic which features a simple color scheme of red, white, and black.

The White Stripes' discography consists of six studio albums, two extended plays (EP), one video album, 26 singles and fourteen music videos. The band has sold approximately 12 million albums worldwide,[1][2] 2 million in the US alone,[3] and their latest three albums have each won a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album.

Jack White (born John Anthony Gillis) first played as a professional musician in the early 1990s, as a drummer for the Detroit cowpunk band Goober & The Peas.[5] This led to work with various other bands, such as the garage punk band The Go (on their 1999 album Whatcha Doin'), for whom White played lead guitar, and Two-Star Tabernacle.[6] Also, neighbor Brian Muldoon (later of The Muldoons) played drums with Jack White – still known then as Jack Gillis – and the duo informally called themselves Two Part Resin.[7] Their post-breakup 7-inch single Makers of High Grade Suites, released in 2000 on Sympathy for the Record Industry, is credited to The Upholsterers.

Gillis married local bartender Megan Martha White on September 21, 1996.[8][9] In unorthodox fashion, he took Meg White's surname.[10] While the newly-christened Jack White continued to play in multiple bands, Meg White first began to learn to play the drums in 1997. In Jack White's words, "When she started to play drums with me, just on a lark, it felt liberating and refreshing. There was something in it that opened me up".[11] The duo then became a band, calling themselves The White Stripes. They first performed publicly on July 14, 1997 at the Gold Dollar in Detroit.

Discography

Studio albums

* The White Stripes (1999)
* De Stijl (2000)
* White Blood Cells (2001)
* Elephant (2003)
* Get Behind Me Satan (2005)
* Icky Thump (2007)

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