Expository, descriptive, and narrative essay writing modes

Music

Since the band exploded onto the scene in 2005, the White Stripes have wooed casual listeners and hypercritical audiophiles alike. Founded by Jack White, the White Stripes have received much critical acclaim and the most affectionate form of flattery, too, which is imitation. For instance, Vancouver, Canada band the White Blood Cells is "a pair of balding Irish guys who only play White Stripes songs," (Lucas, 2012). Usually cover bands are tributes to rock's greats such as Led Zeppelin. The fact that the White Stripes already have cover bands dedicated to them shows how much of a mark they have made on music. Yet it has been difficult to classify the music of The White Stripes. Using the term "rock" music is overly general. Therefore, the best classification of The White Stripes has been, to date, the term "garage rock." Garage rock refers to a sub-genre of rock music that has a raw and edgy sound and which is produced in order to retain that sonic feel, and is characterized by texture, distortion, and intensity. The White Stripes fit that bill. Moreover, the White Stripes were founded in Detroit, which was home to legendary garage rock sounds from the Stooges and the MC5. The White Stripes have earned their place as a legendary Motor City garage rock band due to their skillful songwriting and music production.

The guitar sounds of Jack White are noisy and distorted but highly skillful, which is testimony to the potential of garage rock. Garage rock is not just about making noise, although its noisiness is one of the major appeals. The players have to also be skilled in manipulating sounds including distortion, while they also master song structure, timing, and phrasing. In other words, garage rock is harder than it looks and Jack White is a master of making difficult music sound relatively simple. To a trained ear, the sounds are complex, but a casual listener might receive all the sonic pleasure without necessarily appreciating what makes critics rave about Jack White.

Furthermore, the root of garage rock is in a bluesy sound, which Jack White is intimately familiar with and which he incorporates deftly into his songs. White has expressed his " love of blues music," (McGreevy, 2012). In this way, Jack White has produced music and written songs similar to those of the Stooges and the MC5, his predecessors in the Detroit garage rock sound. The distorted and edgy sound of these Detroit garage rockers hearkens back to the early days of when blues music first became electrified.

The White Stripes have earned accolades not because they fit neatly into a genre, but because they perfect the sounds of a genre. One of the goals of garage rock is to remove the polish and compression that ruined much of the rock music of the 1980s. As a rebellion against the highly produced sounds of pop rock, pop metal, and hair metal, garage rock returns to the roots of rock and roll.