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Subtitle: This is not a Political Story
Just one group has a classic alt-rock sound, yet achives that in a way that is distinctly modern. It's in the music. But it's also in the image. For that reason, The White Stripes deserves its induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Jack and Meg White are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. The couple was once in love and is now divorced, Meg White having disappeared into oblivion. They are the sole members of The White Stripes, named for 50 percent of a peppermint candy.
I love them so much, I made a tribute playlist on Spotfiy, but I do that for a lot of groups.
I don't want to write about their sound. Not today. I want to write about their packaging. The same way they push the boundaries of alternative rock, the group has been remarkably innovative visually. Their monochromatic red-white palate is instantly recognizable, and connected in many peoples' minds with their sound. Jack White's solo endeavours, on the other had use monochrome blue.
Bands are primarily about the music, and so they should be. But there's so much more to the game. Music is heard, but bands are also seen. The White Stripes are good in this area, and the number of other acts that take parts of their identity beyond the music itself into consideration are few and far between.
Arcade Fire is a Canadian example. If you haven't checked out their music video The Wilderness Downtown, you definitely should because it contains your childhood home.
Interactivity! Imagine! There should be more of it. Why is this so novel in the music industry? It adds a layer of experience that I'm surprised more bands haven't embraced.
Radiohead is on Epic Games and PlayStation with Kid A Mensia Exhibition (adults only, for some reason). It's not quite a game, but a remarkable environment that's kind of like being stuck inside one of the group's exploratory music tracks. Thom Yorke has been all about experimentation artistically and this is something worthy of The Met, if only video games could hang in a gallery.
Interactivity doesn't even have to be high-budget. Bob Dylan's timeless Like a Rolling Stone meta-video lets you change channels as you listen. I like the singing newscaster, personally.
Back in the day, I remember watching the DVD of one of last year's inductees Dave Matthews Band's The Central Park Concert circa 2003, which let you switch between shots of the various musicians as they play. Finally, it was the Carter Beauford Band as it should have been all along!
I was a veritable master of the Guitar Hero series even if I can't play real guitar. Paradoxically, as a drummer, I had trouble with the drums on the full-band version of the game. They need to bring that back.
YouTube @rfmckinleyport
Such opportunities to experience music in another dimension are extremely rare. Most music videos are passive and transient, and there's a place for that. Actually, these days, most music videos are cheap and lazy.
Having grown up in the Much Music (alright, "MTV") generation, I have a fond appreciation for music videos, which are, as everyone knows, now dead. The added intrigue of viewer involvement is a novel way to revive them as an artform and marketing mechanism but I would settle for just a little more effort at visual packaging. Labels would do well to embrace both those things.
I might be wrong, but The White Stripes belong in the cold, cold night of Cleveland, immortalized in the Hall of Fame, to walk with the ghosts of music past under the white moon. For their art, including the music, but including all the ways they connect with peoples' imaginations.
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