to the jack white detractors

to say that he is undeserving of holding the seat of the current age guitarist is uninformed. i know because i was at one point a person who didn't give him much credit. years ago i was sitting around my place listening to the "classic" rock guitarists, and simply paid no mind to mr. white. the stripes came to town again and again and i simply didn't even care. i just lumped the white stripes in with bands like the strokes and the rest of the "the bands" who were so plentiful and popular at the time. i saw interesting web videos like 'fell in love with a girl' and 'hardest button to button' and gave the credit only to the video's directors and didn't see what brought it together. i thought there were no great guitarist left and all great music was a part of the past. i was wrong.
eventually they started differentiating themselves in my mind, i heard 'black math', found myself in best buy with a gift certificate to burn and limited selection to pick from and decided to take a chance on 'elephant'.
to hear the range of sound they could create with a two piece band was surprising. to hear the quality of each track and how well the album fit together was surprising. to realize that i had blinded myself for so long because i thought i knew what the white stripes were about was surprising.

i've been a fan for years now. i'm still surprised how many people don't realize that the white stripes are just a two piece band....with the drummer basically only keeping a tempo. you even hear 'the edge' in this movie's bonus features say "i always thought the intro to seven nation army was a bass".


- the white stripes albums are among the most critically acclaimed of the last decade. all of them.
- jack is not an american phenomenon. he is probably more popular in the UK than in the states and more white stripes albums have been sold outside of the US than in it.
- watch a european soccer match and it is not too uncommon to see a stadium of 50k plus fans seemingly spontaneously break out and start chanting the hook to 'seven nation army'
- he played elvis in "walk hard"
- he toured for a decade with nothing backing him but meg white. this forced him to bring it every night with no bass or rhythm guitar to hide behind.
- he can play other instruments well... and does. he is a better musician than he is a guitar player
- there are musicians lining up to work with him or have him produce their albums.
- he produces his own music. he doesn't just play guitar. he does it all top to bottom. he writes the lyrics. he writes the tunes. owns his own label. owns the rights to all his music. he works constantly. he has built himself an empire and can do whatever he wants.... and he wants to keep putting out the same music he always has. get used to it. barring a total mental break down or death he will for a long time.

is he the best ever? no
does he shred hard and always deliver? yes
is the rest of the world wrong, and are you right that he sucks? no

does he take him self too seriously? is he at times pretentious? yes on both counts, but who isn't? and who cares? he is a musician. listen to his music and who cares about the rest. just be happy he doesn't put things in little kids like michael jackson.

jealousy breeds contempt, and that is what i'm seeing a lot of on this board. if you guys are jealous of jack, coming on here and complaining about it won't change anything. try doing something instead.