The White Stripes

The White Stripes stood out as key figures in the garage rock resurgence that defined the first years of the 2000s, merging cerebral ideas with unpolished textures in ways that felt both improbable and compelling while shaping the direction of rock music as the decade unfolded. Jack and Meg White turned self-imposed constraints—regarding their duo format, choice of instruments, and signature red-white-and-black palette—into sources of heightened invention, which let them reveal unexpected dimensions within a seemingly stripped-down style. Meg White’s direct, economical drumming locked seamlessly into place alongside Jack White’s roaming guitar lines and singing, and the resulting music referenced not merely clear predecessors like the Gories and the Stooges but also the legendary blues of Son House and Blind Willie McTell, the riff constructions of Led Zeppelin, the raw punk of the Gun Club, and the narrative traditions of country and folk figures such as Loretta Lynn and Bob Dylan. Their wide-ranging sonic reach together with their affinity for enigma—citing the Dutch design movement De Stijl as an influence equal to any musician and presenting themselves as brother and sister despite having been married until 2000—gave the White Stripes greater longevity than most peers from the same scene. Even as they advanced from a pair of Detroit musicians on 1999’s The White Stripes to global rock figures behind three Grammy-winning albums (2003’s Elephant, 2005’s Get Behind Me Satan, and 2007’s Icky Thump), they stayed faithful to their core principles.

Born and raised in Detroit, Jack White—originally Jack Gillis—started drumming in childhood and added guitar during high school. As a senior he met Meg White at the restaurant where she worked, and the two formed a friendship. While operating his upholstery business, Gillis also drummed for outfits including the country group Goober & the Peas, the Go, and the Hentchmen. He and White married in 1996, after which Jack adopted Meg’s last name. The couple formed a band in 1997 after jamming on Bastille Day, with Jack handling guitar and vocals and Meg on drums. Taking their name from Meg’s fondness for peppermints, they played their first show that August at the Gold Dollar bar, entering a local underground garage rock community that already featured the Gories and the Dirtbombs. They soon linked up with Dave Buick, proprietor of the Detroit garage rock imprint Italy Records, who issued the White Stripes’ debut single “Let’s Shake Hands” in February 1998 as a 7-inch limited to 1,000 copies. That October the single “Lafayette Blues” appeared, and tours alongside Pavement and Sleater-Kinney helped the pair build a national audience.

Following a deal with Sympathy for the Record Industry, the band put out the single “The Big Three Killed My Baby” in March 1999. Cut at Jim Diamond’s Ghetto Recorders studio in Detroit and produced by Jack White, the White Stripes’ self-titled debut album arrived that June and carried a dedication to blues legend Son House. Legendary BBC DJ John Peel became an early supporter, whose endorsement broadened the band’s following in the U.K. The duo wrapped the year with “Hand Springs,” a split single with the Dirtbombs included in the pinball fanzine Multiball. For their unvarnished second album, 2000’s De Stijl, the White Stripes tracked themselves on an 8-track recorder in Jack’s living room. Naming the record after the early-20th-century Dutch aesthetic movement, the band dedicated De Stijl to its originator, designer Gerrit Rietveld, and to Blind Willie McTell. Late that year the White Stripes released Party of Special Things to Do, a Sub Pop single containing three Captain Beefheart covers.

The White Stripes cemented their status as leaders of the garage rock revival with the 2001 album White Blood Cells. Tracked in Memphis with noted producer Doug Easley, the record marked the first occasion the band had used a 24-track studio (and their first album to receive studio mastering), yet it was completed in only four days to prevent an overly refined result. Anchored by the single “Fell in Love with a Girl”—whose inventive Lego-animated video by Michel Gondry earned the 2002 MTV Video Awards for Breakthrough Video, Best Special Effects, and Best Editing—White Blood Cells achieved both critical and commercial success. The album ultimately reached platinum status, and the White Stripes performed on Late Night with David Letterman and the MTV Movie Awards; their music also received coverage in Time, The New Yorker, and Entertainment Weekly. That same year Jack White launched his own imprint, Third Man Records, whose name referenced both the classic Orson Welles film and his upholstery business.

To handle rising demand, the White Stripes signed with a major label. After inking with V2, the label reissued White Blood Cells in January 2002 and the prior two albums that June. For their fourth album the band relocated to London to work at engineer Liam Watson’s Toe Rag Studios, selected for its extensive vintage analog gear. Completed in under two weeks, 2003’s Elephant examined “the death of the sweetheart” and earned unanimous praise plus platinum certifications across multiple countries upon arrival. The album received the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Alternative Album, while its lead single “Seven Nation Army” took the Grammy for Best Rock Song (and later became a widely recognized stadium anthem at sporting events). Also in 2003, Jack White made his screen debut in Anthony Minghella’s Cold Mountain and contributed five songs to its T-Bone Burnett-produced soundtrack.

Although numerous garage rock revival acts faded as the 2000s advanced, the White Stripes maintained a lasting profile. On the stylistically eclectic 2005 album Get Behind Me Satan—which, true to the band’s rapid working method, they wrote and recorded in two weeks—they explored disco-metal and marimba-centered pop. Like Elephant, it captured the Grammy for Best Alternative Album. During the Get Behind Me Satan tour the Stripes covered Tegan and Sara’s “Walking with a Ghost” and issued the track as a single late in 2005. That year Jack White and his second wife, singer/model Karen Elson, relocated to Nashville, Tennessee. After settling there, White formed the Raconteurs with Brendan Benson and the Greenhornes’ Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler, then spent much of 2006 on the road supporting the group’s debut album, Broken Boy Soldiers.

Jack White kept balancing multiple roles as he performed with various bands, produced records for other artists, and explored film work, yet the White Stripes retained strong commercial and critical standing. Early in 2007 the band moved to Warner Bros., which released their sixth and final album, Icky Thump, that June. Recorded at Nashville’s Blackbird Studio across three weeks—the longest sessions in the band’s history—the album also introduced the first White Stripes tracks to feature bagpipes and mariachi horns. Upon release Icky Thump reached number one on the U.K. Albums Chart; in the U.S. it debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 and achieved gold certification by July 2007. Following a cross-country Canadian tour the band played several U.S. dates before canceling all remaining shows that September owing to Meg White’s anxiety issues. Early the next year Icky Thump earned Best Alternative Album at the 2008 Grammy Awards, while the title track won Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. In February 2009 Jack and Meg reunited for their final performance as the White Stripes on the closing episode of Late Night with Conan O’Brien.

Throughout this period Jack White stayed active with numerous ventures. These included the Raconteurs’ 2008 follow-up Consolers of the Lonely and the opening of Third Man Records’ first physical site in Nashville, which housed the label’s offices, a record store, a performance space, and a screening room. At the venue’s March 2009 launch White introduced yet another band, the Dead Weather. Featuring the Kills’ Alison Mosshart, Queens of the Stone Age guitarist Dean Fertita, and his Raconteurs bandmate Lawrence, the group’s debut album Horehound appeared several months later. That year he also appeared in the guitar-focused documentary It Might Get Loud and produced Elson’s album The Ghost Who Walks. Under Great White Northern Lights, a film chronicling the band’s 2007 Canadian tour, premiered at the 2009 Toronto Film Festival. The DVD of the film and an accompanying album of the same name were released in 2010, while Third Man Records reissued the duo’s first three albums on vinyl that same year.

In February 2011 Jack and Meg White formally stated they would no longer record or perform as the White Stripes. The following year Jack White launched his solo career with the album Blunderbuss. In 2015 he returned Third Man Records to its origins by opening a Detroit location that incorporated a vinyl pressing plant along with a record store and venue. During the 2010s Third Man issued reissues of the White Stripes’ albums and singles plus archival material such as 2017’s Complete John Peel Sessions. In December 2020 The White Stripes Greatest Hits became the band’s first career-spanning collection. The compilation also appeared through Third Man Records’ subscription program featuring alternate artwork and a set of B-sides.