The White Stripes are..

The White Stripes are an American rock music duo from Detroit, Michigan, consisting of Jack White (principal songwriter, vocals, guitar, piano) and Meg White (drums, percussion, vocals). The group rose to prominence as part of the garage rock revival with their successful albums White Blood Cells and Elephant. The White Stripes are known for their raw, low-fidelity sound and simplicity of composition and arrangement, mostly inspired by punk rock, hard rock, American blues, folk rock, and country music. July 14, 2007, marked their tenth anniversary as a band, with a show held at the Savoy Theatre in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, selling out in twelve minutes.

De Stijl of Stripes

The White Stripes formed in Detroit, Michigan in 1997, first performing publicly on July 14. The duo began receiving more attention after Jack White's unceremonious exit from the Detroit garage-rock band The Go in 1999 after serving as their lead guitarist on their first album Whatcha Doin'. For years, it was reported that Jack and Meg were brother and sister, but it was later shown that the Whites are a divorced couple. Jack has described their eponymous debut album, The White Stripes (1999), as "really angry ... the most raw, the most powerful, and the most Detroit-sounding record we've made."


Their second release, De Stijl (2000), was named after the De Stijl (The Style) Dutch art movement, which they cited as a source for the approach to their musical image. De Stijl art is on the album cover. The work was recorded on an 8-track analog tape in Jack's living room; he said that, because of the many interruptions during the recording, he would never use that technique again.