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The White Stripes biography

The White Stripes are an American alternative rock band, formed in 1997 in Detroit, Michigan. The group consists of songwriter Jack White (vocals, guitar, and other assorted instruments) and Meg White (drums, percussion and occasional vocals).

After releasing several singles and three albums within the Detroit independent music underground, The White Stripes rose to prominence in 2002, as part of the garage rock revival scene. Their successful albums, White Blood Cells and Elephant, drew them attention from a large variety of media outlets in the United States and the United Kingdom.

The White Stripes use a low-fidelity, do-it-yourself approach to writing and recording, and utilize a simplified color scheme of red, white, and black for their imagery, instruments and clothing. Playing in the punk blues style, their music stresses a raw, minimalistic simplicity of composition and arrangement predominantly inspired by blues, early punk rock, and garage rock.

The discography of The White Stripes consists of six studio albums, one extended play (EP), one video album, 26 singles and fourteen music videos. The band has sold approximately 12 million albums worldwide, 2 million in the US alone, and their latest three albums have each won a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album.

Career

Background, formation and early history

Jack White (born John Anthony Gillis) first played as a professional musician in the early 1990s, as a drummer for the Detroit cowpunk band Goober & The Peas. This led to work with various other bands, such as the garage punk band The Go (on their 1999 album Whatcha Doin'), for whom White played lead guitar, and Two-Star Tabernacle. Also, neighbor Brian Muldoon (later of The Muldoons) played drums with Jack White – still known then as Jack Gillis – and the duo informally called themselves Two Part Resin. Their post-breakup 7-inch single Makers of High Grade Suites, released in 2000 on Sympathy for the Record Industry, is credited to The Upholsterers.

Biography from , the free encyclopedia.
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