The End of an Era

And by saying that this is the "end of an era," I mean that it is the end of a pretty big piece of my own, personal musical adolescence.

And that of millions of people around the world.

I know this is old news in the music world by now, but I wanted to discuss it here.

Last week, the White Stripes broke up.



When I found this out, I was scanning the New York Times website for news, and I saw a picture of Meg and Jack. Clicked. Read. And then proceeded to flip my proverbial shit.

And why did I flip, you ask? Well, the reason is this: The White Stripes were the Band That Was Never Supposed To Break Up. Meg and Jack, through the band's history, have been friends, lovers, husband and wife, divorcees, and "brother" and "sister." Meg even remarried on Jack's land, and Jack long ago opted to take Meg's surname.

They're tight, needless to say.

So I was reading about why they broke up, and the statement released from the press said that they had not broken up for, say, petty differences.

Or even artistic differences, for that matter.

They broke up because they thought that they had pretty much gone as far with their two-part band as they could without compromising the artistic integrity of the band.

They will be releasing no new albums (their last was released in 2007), and they'll be doing no more live shows.

To be honest, my first reaction to this was disappointment that I'll never be able to see them live. The White Stripes and their raw, delicious sound has made them one of my favorite bands (yes, I have a list) for the duration of my teenagerdom. I wanted nothing more than to see Meg and Jack batter away at their instruments on stage.

Surprisingly, I didn't cry about it.

I usually cry over everything.

Disney movies. Missing Led Zeppelin at the 02. Stubbing the hell out of my toe. My dog dying. Failing a quiz. Coming close to making a B in school.

I'm a cry baby.

No tears over this one, despite the disappointment.

I started to think about what this breakup meant, and realized that there's still The Raconteurs. And The Dead Weather. And Jack and Meg are still alive and well and doing amazingly.

So. They broke up. But there's still the music of the past, and there's still more music to come. And I'm okay with that.



PS: Sorry if this seems under par compared to the rest of my posts, but I'm at that point of tired where you're exhausted but can't sleep for the stress. It's a party, guys.