The White Stripes, hanging out, being awesome.
I’ve always quite liked the White Stripes. Not loved, you understand- their music’s ok, but it doesn’t quite grab me in the way other stuff does. However, I’ve always appreciated the spirit in which Jack and Meg White went about their business. There’s a sheer joy to them, and an exuberance in their music and their attitude to music, which others don’t have. Jack White’s also stuck by Meg through her difficulties. That’s kind of admirable, on both his part and hers- it takes guts to admit to something like that, deal with it and get back into the spotlight.
They’ve also been revealed, in this story, as people of principle, willing to make a fuss when their music is appropriated by others to sell stuff they don’t agree with. This happens all the time, of course- that familiar song in an ad which suspiciously doesn’t feature the lead vocal is probably a re-recording, which means that the ad company, basically doesn’t have to pay the band as much, and doesn’t have to get their permission. This has actually happened to the White Stripes before, when they didn’t to my memory make a big deal out of it. Of course, sometimes a band is happy enough to whore themselves out, but I guess if you’re Rick Witter from Shed Seven, dignity and integrity are things you left behind long ago.
The US Air Force, yesterday.
This misappropriation has happened previously in politics- thanks to Ronald Reagan, everyone thinks that ‘Born in the USA’ is actually pro-american, for example. More recently, the Foo Fighters had a bit of a tizzy with George W Bush when his re-election campaign team used ‘Times Like These’ without their permission.
As with these previous examples, this situation doesn’t seem to be about the money. I think if anyone’s ok, financially, it’s going to be Jack White, unless of course he spent all the money on giant red-and-white lollipops or something. This seems to be about the principle that a military organisation should not be using their music to suggest that getting in planes and learning how to kill people with them. Fair play.
As for myself, I would also like to point out that the Military-Industrial complex trying to associate themselves with a ramshackle band who are deliberately archaic, tend to use old equipment and send two people to do the job of four.
I’m not entirely sure they thought things through.
Then again, it wouldn’t be the first time a US Military organisation has done that, would it?
