Its only rock and roll but I like it! (The Strokes in general)

Member Name: wicked_witch

Product:	The Strokes in general
Date:	20/02/02 (47 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: its the STROKES!!! What can ya say!

Disadvantages: far too cool! and probably short-lived

So. What exactly is it that has teenyboppers and rock fans salivating at the Strokes feet? They're possibly the biggest cliche in the world at the moment, influenced by thousands of other bands and not an original bone in any of their skinny little bodies (it only sounds that way because they belong in the seventies), guitar riffs that a five year old child could play and more daft, sexy and nonsensical lyrics than you could wave a platium disc at.

A band being hyped to death by NME would surely be enough to put the entire world off, it certainly put me off. I was determined from the start that I would hate this band just because everybody else loved them!

But I didnt consider the extremely persuasive power of their music. Soon I was jumping about my room like an idiot to Last Nite along with all the other hangers-on. And salivating over the comical haircuts and fashion sense of the Strokes, and their it-all-comes-down-to-sex attitudes. Because who doesnt love five New Yorkers jumping about and singing about sex, New york city cops, more sex, and well, more sex.

So what is it? is it the combination of all the influences that make the Strokes so great? From the Velvet Underground to Iggy Pop, this lot have it covered from A-to-Z. They pull off cliches with so much pizazz that they seem like nothing that ever existed before.

Or, is it possible, that we are so bored with bland marketed bands with no real passion that the Strokes come as a welcome surprise? I reckon that could just be it. Bored of boring, bland, beautiful Britney-clones and wannabe-edgy nu-metallers like Slipknot and Limp Bizkit, we turn to a band who have only been around for five minutes and actually sound like they love what they do. The energy and love of music permeates The Strokes raw, retro tracks and everything they do (and of course they cant do any wrong). And of course, the bottom line is, ITS FUN!!!! Who wants their music to be pretentious and incompre
hensible (Radiohead), or boring and dull (The Phonics, StarSailor, ColdPlay). Basically people who are boring and pretentious and dull. And you can bet when Last Nite comes on the radio they sing along like everyone else! Finally music can be fun again, something to jump around to and sing along to, something sexy and camp and downright ridiculously catchy.

So, lets hope this isn't it for the Strokes (pun intended). Maybe they'll last for years, my suspicion is they'll last a couple of years at the most, but what they have already done is turned the industry on its head, and its about damn time we got some musicians that actually know how to enjoy the music parts of their lives as well as the dirty sex and drinking and passing out parts. Although something tells me they've got those parts down to a T as well! So, maybe they wont last long, but I sure as hell plan to enjoy them while they last.

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