The Strokes are an American rock band loved and listened to by many people of all ages across the world. The band was created in New York City in 1998 with members Julian Casablancas, Nick Valensi, Nikolai Fraiture, Albert Hammond, Jr. and Fabrizio Moretti. The band acclaimed massive success with their 2001 debut album “Is This It” and continues to make incredibly impactful and simple rock and roll music.
“Is This It” is one of those releases that touched most people in some way or another. The music from this album has been used countless times in popular movies and other forms of media, making it almost impossible for their music to be unheard by the general public. Some of their most popular songs come from that album including “Barely Legal”, “Someday” and “Last Nite”. Critically speaking, the album ranks number eight on Rolling Stone’s 100 Best Debut Albums of All Time, number two on Rolling Stone’s 100 Best Albums of the ‘00s, 199 on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and number four in the NME top 500 albums of all time. For a release coming from a band that was relatively unknown at the time, this acknowledgement is game changing. This album really shaped the future of garage bands in the early 21st century and was done so simply and minimally.
The production aspect of this album was extremely important to the band and added to the impact of the album. They were persistent in maintaining a certain level of authenticity and not giving in to gimmicks to make audiences accept their music. Lead singer Julian Casablancas wanted the album to sound like “a band from the past that took a time trip into the future to make their record”. The album definitely achieves this vision with the illusion of the songs being performed live with an overall flat nature in the sound of the music. Their music is very minimalistic, simple, and overall good rock and roll; they portray the nostalgia of a classic rock band but speak to the current audiences with their lyrics.
The lyrical content is secondary to the music itself because the instrumentals hold such monumental elements that shaped future music. But, the poetry of Julian Casablancas has also made a way for indie and alternative music. Much of the album discusses issues of our youth mostly regarding to relationships, sex, and counter-culture ideas.
Overall, “Is This It” was an extremely important album for all genres of modern music at the time. The album challenged the default sound of music production at the time and completely threw away the need for crazy effects and enhanced sounds, the music and songwriting of the album brought listeners back to the simplicity of rock and roll in earlier decades, and the lyrical content tied everything together by having the most generation-relatable content. There are few albums, especially modern ones that one can listen to and completely understand the musical, lyrical, and generational impact that it holds.
