“No instruments and no songwriting”: the genre Jack White said has “broken music down”
There’s a definite argument to be made that rock and roll heroes, in the truest sense of the word, are a dying breed, and that Jack White is perhaps one of the last of his kind in this sense.
By this, we’re referring to the sort of artist who lives and breathes the genre, and who is a diehard in their dedication to it. We’re talking about the likes of Jimmy Page and Keith Richards, who seem so intrinsically tied to the art form and couldn’t possibly be associated with another style, and whose dedication to rock music eclipses any appreciation they might form for another style.
Given White’s tastes, a considerable amount of which takes influence from the delta blues of artists like Robert Johnson, Son House and Lead Belly, along with a deep admiration for early rock and roll music and garage rock, you could certainly argue that he fits the mould in terms of being an appropriate candidate for the position of a rock hero in the truest sense.
However, he’s certainly shown interest in other areas that true rock and roll heroes wouldn’t prod with a bargepole, with some of his music experimenting with forms that purists of the genre would traditionally shy away from.
Normally, the criteria for being given this nomenclature involves you being stuck in your ways and unwilling to explore other avenues, and with some of White’s most recent ventures having explored different styles, particularly his 2021 solo record, Boarding House Reach, this raises questions about just how committed to the cause he is in spite of The White Stripes, The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather’s comfortability in the area.
That being said, one area that White expressed a lack of understanding or appreciation for during a 2003 interview is hip-hop, with him declaring to Rolling Stone that he felt as though the genre was taking music in a direction that felt antithetical to his own ideologies.
“I find OutKast and Wu-Tang Clan interesting,” he said, accepting that there were artists in the genre with merits to celebrate, before caveating his statement by noting, “But I consider music to be storytelling, melody and rhythm.”
His suggestion that these integral elements were absent from hip-hop is perhaps questionable, with an argument to be made that there are a number of artists who defy his logic.
“A lot of hip-hop has broken music down.”
Jack White
White continued, “There are no instruments and no songwriting. So you’re left with just storytelling and rhythm. And the storytelling can be so braggadocious, you’re just left with rhythm. I don’t find much emotion in that.”
Of course, he’s entitled to his own opinions on the matter, and he may well have changed his tune over time, with there almost certainly being elements of his solo albums taking inspiration from hip-hop in a production sense. Besides, since 2016, he’s worked with both A Tribe Called Quest and Tyler, the Creator, suggesting that he’s not just opened his mind to hip-hop, but is beginning to embrace it along with all of the elements of raw storytelling that were explored in the blues music he loves.
