This marks the fifth in a 10-day series of posts on For Those About to Rock celebrating the year and the decade in film and music. Today's installment looks at the rise and decline of The Strokes and garage rock during the Aughties. Tomorrow, my 100 favorite songs of the decade ...
Back in the fall of 2001, The Strokes seemed poised to be the biggest band of the decade, especially when they all but lit the stage aflame in their debut on "The Late Show With David Letterman" (watch "Take it Or Leave It" above).
Is This It, the record carrying "Take it Or Leave It" and 10 other cuts, sold more than 2 million copies worldwide. The record urgently ushered in a retro-'70s sense of fashion and style. Guitar bands were cool again. Behind the strength of "Last Nite," they snaked into the charts, bringing their careless cool and effortless charm along with it.
By the close of the decade, The Strokes sold fewer than 300,000 copies in America of its third record, 2006's First Impressions of Earth. The band went on indefinite hiatus and will play its first gigs together in four years next summer.
So, as the title of the first track on their second album, Room on Fire, asks, "What Ever Happened?"
When The Strokes hit it big, they brought along a fistful of competitors: The "The" bands. Collectively, The Strokes, The Hives, The White Stripes, The Vines, The Von Bondies, The Dirtbombs, The Detroit Cobras, The 5.6.7.8s and The Libertines did manage to overthrow hip hop and reassert rock's dominance as the leading format in sales.
But instead of Strokes singer Julian Casablancas ascending to be rock's new king of cool, it turned out to be White Stripes frontman Jack White who became the decade's best bonafide rock star.
Garage rock isn't dead by any stretch, but its mainstream appeal has faded. So where did The Strokes go?
I don't have a good answer, but I have a few theories for your consideration:
• The new emperors of rock 'n' roll had no clothes. The uncaring cool and hipster image were really dullness in disguise. The stories about drugs, weeklong parties and a harem of women to make Tiger Woods look like an amateur were just that — stories.
• They never had another hit with the resonance of "Last Nite." "Juicebox" from First Impressions was a top-10 hit in the U.K., but barely cracked the top 100 stateside. "12:51" is probably their most ambitious track to date, but as the lead single from Room, landed like a dud, which leads into ... .
• Nobody liked Room on Fire as much as I did. Instead of seeing it as growth and maturity, some reviewers and a number of listeners heard more of the same. "A roaring opener, a trio of great potential singles and a remarkable slow number successfully divert attention from the fact that half of Room on Fire is uninspired filler," wrote Alexis Petridis in his review of the record for The Guardian. "The Strokes have managed to come up with just 15 minutes of decent music in two years."
• A lot changed between October 2003 and January 2006 in music. This meant in the time between Room and First Impressions was plenty of time to let their star fall. The retro attitude they ushered in remained, but the emphasis on the low-fi buzz and fuzz fizzled out. As if history repeated itself, The Strokes and the resurgence of garage rock were followed by descendants of Krautrock and post-punk groups — Franz Ferdinand, The Killers or The Foals — marching up the charts.
• The Strokes are the first musical casualty of an Internet buzz overkill backlash. The Internet has become the greatest hype machine when it comes to music, and early on in the Aughties, no one was as puffed up as The Strokes. Don't take more word for it: "The Strokes detected a flaw in the music industry matrix, and neatly slipped one in where something had been missing," wrote Lisa Oliver for Stylus. "Now that flaw has not only been mended, it’s choking with bands that do the retro shuck-n-jive. And none of these hucksters do it anywhere near as well as the bands that did it first time."
Their hiatus since 2006 was sort of an unintended admission of defeat. They may never reach the heights they achieved before, but the future may hold some hope for The Strokes. A new album is in the works for next year, along with those festival gigs.
But what ever happened? Your guess is as good as mine.
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