In the opening scene of “It Might Get Loud,” a 2008 music documentary, musician Jack White appears surrounded by scrap wood and garbage. He hammers nails into a board, wraps wire around a glass Coca-Cola bottle as a makeshift guitar bridge, attaches a pickup and plugs the contraption into a vintage Sears Silvertone amplifier — anything more modern or of better quality would never do.
White then uses his signature slide bar to play a distorted electric riff on the rudimentary instrument. He declares, matter-of-factly, “Who says you need to buy a guitar?” and casually puffs a cigarette.
As Associate Professor of Music Theory Nathan Fleshner explains that this scene of manufacturing innovation — crafting what is needed out of what is available — is a signature of The White Stripes. The influential band, which White co-founded with Meg White in the late 1990s, is being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s Class of 2025. Read more at The Conversation.
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