# For once and for all: What's the Straight Dope on the White Stripes? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 7, 2003, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-once-and-for-all-whats-the-straight-dope-on-the-white-stripes/167092 "2003-04-07T16:25:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![vibrotronica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a9a28c/32.png) [@vibrotronica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vibrotronica)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-once-and-for-all-whats-the-straight-dope-on-the-white-stripes/167092/41 "2003-04-11T22:44:37Z")
quoth gex: > [@](#): > > I’m sorry. I’m having this unnerving feeling that things are flying over my head with a whooshing noise. Yeah, like the Beatles! I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen somebody miss the point so completely. I really dig the new White Stripes record, and I recommend it to anyone and everyone. The Onion’s AV Club’s review compared it to **1999** and **Let It Bleed**. I don’t know about that, but it’s as solid an album as I’ve heard all year. ---
**Author:** ![Caprese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9a28c/32.png) [@Caprese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caprese)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-once-and-for-all-whats-the-straight-dope-on-the-white-stripes/167092/42 "2003-04-11T23:34:52Z")
[QUOTE] I explained this. I meant other Beatles albums are similarly patchy in terms of quality. Nothing to do with their songs sounding alike. Each album, like Sgt Pepper’s is of an inconsistent quality. I never suggested that other albums sound like Sgt Pepper’s or other songs sound like songs on Sgt Pepper’s. Sheesh. You’d think you’d only have to clarify a statement once per thread. [QUOTE] Sorry, I guess I myself was unclear. I knew exactly what you meant, but disagreed. I happen to think that albums such as Revolver and Abbey Road are quite strong throughout–just my opinion. As far as the Citizen Kane thing, not sure I’d compare it to Tom Stoppard’s thing with Rosencrantz and Guilderstein, but I’ll let it pass. And the brother-sister thing, I suppose, came to me having been filtered through the media. ---
**Author:** ![Caprese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9a28c/32.png) [@Caprese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caprese)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-once-and-for-all-whats-the-straight-dope-on-the-white-stripes/167092/43 "2003-04-11T23:36:41Z")
Messed up the quotes. Hopefully everyone, including **gex gex** , will know to whom I was replying. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2003, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-once-and-for-all-whats-the-straight-dope-on-the-white-stripes/167092/44 "2003-04-12T05:05:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by gex gex \* > \*\*😕 Where… do… I… keep… it? > \*\* The crack pipe you are smoking! 😉 * * * Somebodys gotta go back and git a shitload of dimes! ---
**Author:** ![gex\_gex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/94ad74/32.png) [@gex\_gex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gex_gex)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2003, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-once-and-for-all-whats-the-straight-dope-on-the-white-stripes/167092/45 "2003-04-12T08:19:19Z")
Hmmm… once upon a time you had to put a safety pin through your nose and dis the Queen to shock people. All I have to do is say that I think the Beatles are overrated and suddenly I’m the new Johnny Rotten. 🙂 I mean, I get the Beatles, I understand why they’re hailed as the greatest thing in music ever, but I just don’t agree. They aren’t that great. To so many people music stopped at Woodstock. So many baby boomers growing old with the Beatles as a symbol of unnattainable perfection in their minds, forgetting that the world’s moved on since then. And they write articles about it, and they make documentaries about their teenage idols and they write books and suddenly The Beatles are officially “Greatest Band Ever,” and everyone takes that as gospel. The sixties would never have happened if those at the time had decided that the pinnacle of musical endeavour was Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby. ---
**Author:** ![Caprese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9a28c/32.png) [@Caprese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caprese)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2003, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-once-and-for-all-whats-the-straight-dope-on-the-white-stripes/167092/46 "2003-04-12T12:38:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by gex gex \* > \*\* > > I mean, I get the Beatles, I understand why they’re hailed as the greatest thing in music ever, but I just don’t agree. They aren’t that great. > > To so many people music stopped at Woodstock. So many baby boomers growing old with the Beatles as a symbol of unnattainable perfection in their minds, forgetting that the world’s moved on since then. > > And they write articles about it, and they make documentaries about their teenage idols and they write books and suddenly The Beatles are officially “Greatest Band Ever,” and everyone takes that as gospel. > > The sixties would never have happened if those at the time had decided that the pinnacle of musical endeavour was Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby. \*\* Hmmm. I had an interesting talk with my brother about this. (He is 43,I am five years older.) Our discussion was actually not about how great the Beatles were–it was more about 70’s music in general. I don’t know ANYONE in my generation who felt that the music stopped after Woodstock–quite the opposite, it was just gaining momentum, then pooped out in the middle of the 80’s, when it suddenly was all about video. Anyhoo, Bro feels that the music of today just does not creatively measure up to the stuff we were listening to in the early 70’s. He and I both like some spoken word, we do listen to fairly up-to-the-minute stuff. (It helps when you have teenagers.) I tend to disagree with him, I think most people are nostalgic for the music of their coming-of-age era; they think that nothing will ever be as good. Hence the memory lane Beatle-worship. While I am not thrilled with the White Stripes, (I do really feel as if I have heard it all before), and I think sampling is overdone, I know techniques similar to sampling have probably been going on since caveman days. I guess I just don’t feel that musically we are going to hell in a handbasket. People are still creating, but the genre is now changed. The stuff I rocked out to in '73 is now selling Toyotas and Caddies on TV, but I’ve got nobody to blame but My Generation. ---
**Author:** ![look\_ninjas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b2d939/32.png) [@look\_ninjas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/look_ninjas)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2003, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-once-and-for-all-whats-the-straight-dope-on-the-white-stripes/167092/47 "2003-04-12T13:12:45Z")
**gex gex** You’re not the new Johnny Rotten. You’re actually the Clash. “Phony Beatlemania has bitten the dust.” (from “London Calling.”) I’m a Beatles fan myself, but I don’t think the Stones are all that great, so clearly, not everyone’s going to agree on the same five bands from the sixties that we’re all supposed to like. I’d like to point something out, though. Someone way up top (and I’m not scrolling back to find it) said that the Beatles never limited themselves creatively. Actually, **Let it Be** was supposed to be a live album, no overdubs, just simple, straightforward, and back to basics. I would call that limits. I understand what the White Stripes were going for by limiting themselves. As Robert Rodriguez might put it, they were trying to solve problems that arose creatively, instead of “washing them away with the money hose.” ---
**Author:** ![gex\_gex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/94ad74/32.png) [@gex\_gex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gex_gex)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2003, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-once-and-for-all-whats-the-straight-dope-on-the-white-stripes/167092/48 "2003-04-13T10:41:35Z")
> [@](#): > > _originally posted by look!ninjas_ > gex gex You’re not the new Johnny Rotten. You’re actually the Clash. Now why didn’t I think of that? > [@](#): > > The stuff I rocked out to in '73 is now selling Toyotas and Caddies on TV, but I’ve got nobody to blame but My Generation. It’s alright - it’s happening to me too. I half laugh half scream whenever I hear the Dandy Warhols’ _Bohemian Like You_ advertising Mitsubishi (or whatever it is). You see, they were smart enough to take out the line “see you’ve got a new car/ what’s wrong with it today,” but being familiar with the song, that just makes me notice it more. Never buying a Mitsubishi. ---
**Author:** ![Kyomara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8edcca/32.png) [@Kyomara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyomara)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2003, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-once-and-for-all-whats-the-straight-dope-on-the-white-stripes/167092/49 "2003-04-13T15:11:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by gex gex \* > \*\*To so many people music stopped at Woodstock. So many baby boomers growing old with the Beatles as a symbol of unnattainable perfection in their minds, forgetting that the world’s moved on since then. > > And they write articles about it, and they make documentaries about their teenage idols and they write books and suddenly The Beatles are officially “Greatest Band Ever,” and everyone takes that as gospel.\*\* Thank you! Exactly how I feel about it. I don’t mind people calling the Beatles a great band at all. I understand their genius. What I dislike is that so many people hold them up as some kind of pinnacle, like making music is some kind of contest to break their record (no pun intended). There has been more than enough genius to go around since the Beatles broke up. > [@](#): > > _originally posted by Caprese_ > **…the music of today just does not creatively measure up to the stuff we were listening to in the early 70’s.** I humbly submit that people who feel this way need to stop listening to the radio. The good music is there waiting for you if you care to look for it. (And I realize, **Caprese** , that you are expressing someone else’s opinion here.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-once-and-for-all-whats-the-straight-dope-on-the-white-stripes/167092.md?page=2)