COLUMN: I fell in love with a band
One minute and 50 seconds.
That is how long it took for Jack and Meg White to completely change my attitude toward music.
Wednesday was the day that many fans of the duo, The White Stripes, knew was coming for more than three years. The band announced through www.whitestripes.com that they would no longer record music or perform live.
“Both Meg and Jack hope this decision isn’t met with sorrow by their fans but that it is seen as a positive move done out of respect for the art and music that the band has created,” read the statement on the band’s website.
In that spirit, not out of sorrow but out of fond remembrance, I was driven back to that moment which still means so much to me.
I was fourteen years old, getting ready for another day of eighth grade, with MTV — which still played music videos in the morning — on the TV as I ate my breakfast.
At this point in my life I listened to music, but I never thought about music. I never thought about who was making it, how they were making it or, most importantly, why they were making it.
But as I was sitting there, eating my cereal, the video for The White Stripes’ “Fell in Love with a Girl” came on. I was initially drawn in by the stop-animation video.
But that first time, I hardly even noticed the video as the music came through.
It was raw, messy and crunchy, and its hook grabbed you by the collar and forced you to pay attention. And it didn’t even last two minutes.
This wasn’t a group of pretty guys trying to make a record that appealed to the masses so they could live the Puff Daddy cars-and-champagne lifestyle. This was a divorced couple building off their quirks, fascinations and shortcomings, making the music that meant something to them. It was probably the first time a song genuinely made me feel something, and I genuinely understood why.
I got the album with the song on it, “White Blood Cells,” as soon as I could. Over the years I ended up owning and loving every single studio album they made.
To me, this is not just a band breaking up. These songs opened my eyes and showed me both the sonic and emotional potential music had.
For me, that one minute and fifty seconds turned into nine years of listening to and admiring the music of The White Stripes. It may seem shallow or cliché to say that their music changed me and helped to shape my life, but it kind of did, and I wouldn’t trade it away, ever.
