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Sunday, May 15, 2011

The White Stripes - Seven Nation Army

The White Stripes were an American alternative rock duo, formed in 1997 in Detroit, Michigan. The group consisted of the songwriter Jack White (vocals, guitar, and keyboards) and drummer Meg White (drums and occasional vocals). Jack and Meg White were previously married to each other, but are now divorced.

After releasing several singles and three albums within the Detroit music scene, the White Stripes rose to prominence in 2002, as part of the garage rock revival scene. Their successful albums White Blood Cells and Elephant drew them attention from a large variety of media outlets in the United States and the United Kingdom.

The White Stripes used a low-fidelity, do-it-yourself approach to writing and recording. Their music featured a melding of punk rock and blues influences and a raw simplicity of composition, arrangement, and performance.

The duo was also noted for their fashion and design aesthetic which featured a simple color scheme of red, white, and black. The band's discography consists of six studio albums, one live album, two extended plays (EP), one concert film, one tour documentary, twenty-six singles, and fourteen music videos. Their last three albums each won the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album. After a long hiatus, The White Stripes formally announced their split on February 2, 2011.

"Seven Nation Army" is the first track on the album Elephant by American alternative rock band The White Stripes. It was released as a single in 2003. Seven Nation Army reached #1 on the Modern Rock Tracks for three weeks and won 2004's Grammy Award for Best Rock Song.

The song is known for its underlying riff, which plays throughout most of the song. Although it sounds like a bass guitar (an instrument the group had famously never previously used), the sound is actually created by running Jack White's semi-acoustic guitar (a 1950s style Kay Hollowbody) through a Digitech Whammy pedal set down an octave. The riff was composed at a sound check before a show at the Corner Hotel in Melbourne, Australia, according to the set notes in the booklet which accompanied the Under Blackpool Lights DVD. This riff was inspired by the main theme of Anton Bruckner's Fifth symphony.

This song was number six on Rolling Stone's 2009 list of the 50 Best Songs of the Decade.In March 2005, Q magazine placed "Seven Nation Army" at number 8 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks. In September 2005, NME placed "Seven Nation Army" at number 5 in its list of the 50 Greatest Tracks Of The Decade. It was also called the 75th greatest hard rock song by VH1.

In May 2008, Rolling Stone placed this song at number 21 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time. The song was also listed at #30 on Pitchfork Media's top 500 songs of the 2000s, and at number 2 in Observer Music Monthly's top
75 songs of the decade, behind Beyoncé's "Crazy in Love".

On Rolling Stone's updated version of their The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, "Seven Nation Army" was listed at number 286. It was also ranked #1 on Rhapsody's list of the Top 100 Tracks of the Decade.

" The above text is a mashup from Wikipedia."

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