The Strokes saved rock from its gaudiest and most commercial instincts.
I still remember the first album I ever bought. Unfortunately, it’s not an especially fond memory. I was six years old, and through a promotional campaign with McDonald’s, ’N Sync tricked me into paying money for their music — a sin I have yet to repeat — with clever marketing tactics and relatively cheap thrills.
This sticks out in my mind as significant on some metaphorical level, too. By the end of the 20th century, popular music had become synonymous with cheap, conveyor-belt food with a reputation for causing arterial clotting if consumed on too frequent a basis.
When The Strokes — whose next album comes out March 26 — burst onto the New York music scene in 2000, people began to turn away from this studio-ified music trend and revel in a more authentic sound. Upon releasing their debut EP The Modern Age in early 2001, they generated an unlikely amount of success for a fledgling rock band.
Positive reception led to a bidding war among labels and a massive amount of hype generated primarily, but not exclusively, by the British press. Suddenly, there was this group of ragged 20-year-old uptown New York kids playing garage rock — The Velvet Underground fused with a new wave sound reminiscent of The Cars.
Contempt is readily bred in the American music industry for young bands that have acquired seemingly unearned exposure. As a result, critics called The Strokes’ sound hackneyed and lead singer Julian Casablancas’ vocals a cheap imitation of an early Lou Reed. Some even went so far as to say they were representative of all that was wrong in the world of music.
Nonetheless, the group’s first full-length album, Is This It, garnered widespread acclaim, including a 9.1 out of 10 from the historically hype-hating Pitchfork, even after writer Ryan Schreiber declared the band had “seen enough publicity in 2001 to make bin Laden jealous.”
They encapsulated a moment in time by finding the balance between angst, apathy and artistic emotion that can be found in all great rock sounds, while still making it their own. They cared just enough to play their songs for you but not nearly enough to act happy about it.
Sure, The White Stripes were around before The Strokes, and sure, The White Stripes were very influential. But they weren’t a group of guys who went to school together and then decided to play music with each other. Compared to The Strokes, they weren’t even a band; they were a truly talented duo that was, quite honestly, less relatable.
The Strokes struck the match that sparked the rock band again. From them sprung groups like Franz Ferdinand, Arctic Monkeys and The Kooks, to name a few. They influenced what looked cool, too. Tattered thrift shop jeans became infinitely more trendy than studded earrings and spiked bleached hair. That’s right — even hipsters owe something to The Strokes.
The Strokes did not by any means invent a genre — they liberated one. And despite more tepid reactions to their three albums since Is This It, the band has progressed and experimented without deviating too far from the sound that won them acclaim in the first place.
When the band’s newest album is released next month, I’m willing to bet critical reviews will again be mixed. There will be complaints that they’ve just mirrored Is This It, or that they’ve taken a step or two in the wrong direction. Don’t believe it.
While it may not be considered the quintessential rock album of the modern era, it will be The Strokes. No pretense, no mainstream nonsense. Just good old rock with 21st-century relevance.
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