The White Stripes

A Detroit duo of Jack and Meg White who dressed in red, white and black, recorded fast on old equipment, and went from the Detroit scene to the top of the charts with Seven Nation Army.

Origin: Detroit, Michigan, United States
Years active: 1997-2011
Genres: garage rock, blues rock, punk blues, indie rock, alternative rock
Labels: Italy Records, Sympathy for the Record Industry, V2, XL Recordings, Third Man Records, Warner Bros.

Detroit

Jack Gillis and Meg White met in high school at a coffee shop in either Ferndale or Hamtramck. They married in 1996 and Jack took his wife's surname. On Bastille Day 1997 the then unnamed duo played its first concert at the Gold Dollar bar in Detroit, about two months after Meg began learning the drums. They settled on the name the White Stripes. Jack said the idea came from peppermint candy, a symbol of childhood and innocence, and every album and single cover stuck to red, white and black.

Dave Buick of the Detroit label Italy Records offered to pay for a single, and Let's Shake Hands came out in February 1998 in an edition of 1,000. Sympathy for the Record Industry signed them the next year and released their self-titled debut, produced by Jack, on 15 June 1999. Jack and Meg divorced in March 2000, but Meg insisted that the band go on. They kept saying they were brother and sister, and in 2003 Meg said they were finished with that story. De Stijl followed on 20 June 2000, recorded on an 8-track tape machine in the living room of their Detroit home and named after the Dutch art movement.

Breakthrough

White Blood Cells was recorded in Memphis in February 2001 over three days for about $5,000 and released by Sympathy on 3 July 2001. V2 reissued it in 2002, the year Michel Gondry's Lego-animation video for Fell in Love with a Girl won three MTV Video Music Awards and Rolling Stone ran the headline Rock is Back on a September cover. Pitchfork's Dan Kilian and Ryan Schreiber wrote that the Whites "don't innovate rock; they embody it." The album also holds Hotel Yorba and We're Going to Be Friends. Days before their second John Peel session in November 2001, the band visited Toe Rag Studios in Hackney, London.

They returned to Toe Rag in April and May 2002 and made Elephant in about two weeks with engineer Liam Watson, on an 8-track and without computers. Released in April 2003, it reached number one in the UK and number six in the US. It carried Seven Nation Army, which won Best Rock Song at the 2004 Grammys, and The Hardest Button to Button, and the album won Best Alternative Music Album. Brent DiCrescenzo of Pitchfork gave it a negative review and called Meg's drumming pancake-handed.

Satan and Icky Thump

Jack made Get Behind Me Satan at his Detroit home in about two weeks in February and March 2005. He replaced the electric guitar with piano, mandolin and acoustic guitar on all but three tracks, and added a marimba. The lead single was Blue Orchid. The album entered the Billboard 200 and the UK chart at number three and won the 2006 Grammy for Best Alternative Album.

For Icky Thump the duo moved to Blackbird Studio in Nashville and spent three weeks there, the longest of any of their albums. Released in June 2007 on Warner Bros. in the US and XL elsewhere, it entered the UK chart at number one and the Billboard 200 at number two. That summer they toured Canada, playing all ten provinces and the three territories. On 11 September 2007 the band cancelled 18 dates because of Meg's struggle with acute anxiety.

After

The band was on hiatus from late 2007. Its last live performance was on the final episode of Late Night with Conan O'Brien on 20 February 2009, where it played an alternate version of We're Going to Be Friends. On 2 February 2011 Jack and Meg announced that they had stopped recording and performing as the White Stripes. The announcement denied artistic differences and health issues and cited a myriad of reasons, mostly to preserve what was special about the band. Jack said in 2014 that he thought a reunion unlikely.

Third Man Records, Jack's label, has since reissued albums and released archive material, among them the 2015 live album Under Amazonian Lights from the band's 2005 show in Manaus, Brazil, and a Greatest Hits collection in 2020. Rolling Stone named them the sixth greatest duo of all time in 2015. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2025 by Iggy Pop. Jack accepted the award, and Meg did not attend.

Members

Jack White guitar, keyboards, piano, vocals (1997-2011)
Meg White drums, percussion, vocals (1997-2011)

Records

De Stijl 2000 · Sympathy for the Record Industry
Recorded at home on an 8-track and named after the Dutch art movement.
White Blood Cells 2001 · Sympathy for the Record Industry
Recorded in three days in Memphis for about $5,000, the album that put Jack and Meg White at the front of the garage rock revival.
Elephant 2003 · V2 (US), XL Recordings (UK)
Cut in about two weeks at Toe Rag on an 8-track, it took the band to number one in the UK and brought Seven Nation Army.
Get Behind Me Satan 2005 · V2 (US), XL Recordings
Written and recorded at home with piano and marimba in place of most of the electric guitar, and called by Third Man Records the most misunderstood entry in the catalogue.
Icky Thump 2007 · Warner Bros. (US), XL Recordings
The sixth and last studio album, recorded in Nashville, with bagpipes and a trumpet added.

Songs

Fell in Love with a Girl White Blood Cells · 2001
A one-minute-fifty blast with a wordless sing-along in place of a chorus, and the Lego video that made it a hit.
Hotel Yorba White Blood Cells · 2001
A country song about a real Detroit hotel, and the lead single from White Blood Cells.
We're Going to Be Friends White Blood Cells · 2001
A gentle song about two children who meet on the first day of school, and the last song the band ever played live.
Seven Nation Army Elephant · 2003
A riff first saved for a James Bond theme that ended up chanted in stadiums around the world.
The Hardest Button to Button Elephant · 2003
Elephant's second single, a song about the odd man out in a family, with Michel Gondry's video of multiplying drum kits.
Blue Orchid Get Behind Me Satan · 2005
The opening single of Get Behind Me Satan, written and released within six weeks, and in Jack's words the song that saved the album.

Son House, Loretta Lynn, The Stooges, MC5, Jack White

Where to go next

Official

The White Stripes official site News, music, videos and the store.
Third Man Records Jack White's label, home of the reissues and archive releases.

Reference

The White Stripes at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame The 2025 induction, with influences and signature songs.
The White Stripes A history of the band, its equipment and its image.
White Blood Cells The making of the album, song by song.
Elephant The Toe Rag sessions, the equipment and the reception.
Get Behind Me Satan The home sessions, the songs and the tour.
Icky Thump The Nashville sessions and the final album.
De Stijl The living-room album and the art movement behind its name.
Seven Nation Army The riff, the recording and its life in stadiums.
Fell in Love with a Girl The single and Michel Gondry's Lego video.

Writing and criticism

Pitchfork on White Blood Cells A review from August 2001 by Dan Kilian and Ryan Schreiber.
Pitchfork on Elephant Brent DiCrescenzo's negative review from April 2003.
Pitchfork on Get Behind Me Satan Matthew Murphy's review from June 2005.

Sources

The White Stripes, Wikipedia
The White Stripes, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The White Stripes: White Blood Cells, Pitchfork (2001-08-23)
The White Stripes: Elephant, Pitchfork (2003-04-01)
The White Stripes: Get Behind Me Satan, Pitchfork (2005-06-05)
The White Stripes, The White Stripes official site