It's hard to believe that nearly 10 years ago (seriously, 10 years ago?) The Strokes put out their phenomenal album, Is This It. This album actually came out first in the UK, since the Brits eat up anything remotely cool and exhaust the shit out of it (bonus points if the band is from New York City), and the UK album cover was far more provocative (the photographer's girlfriend's bare ass cupped by a latex gloved hand). The UK version of this album also had a song entitled "New York City Cops", which bashed the NYPD, but was promptly removed in favor for "When It Started" thanks to the 9/11 attacks.
It was The Strokes' first album, which during the 2000s meant that this was most likely their best album. The Strokes changed everything . Music at the time desperately needed to be changed: the most popular bands of the year were Nickelback, Korn, and Limp Bizkit. Along came a group of five disheveled, greasy, pimply, most likely hadn't showered in days, and poorly dressed rich kids who had immigrated to the LES. Much like Nirvana back in the early 90s, when "Last Nite" invaded the MTV airwaves with its 70's quality production, we all knew this band was different.
Back in 2001, The Strokes changed everything for me. I had heard "The Modern Age" before and thought it was pretty cool. My friend Muriel and I both asked if the other had heard of this new band. We felt like they were our little thing for a while. "Last Nite" came out and it seemed like overnight The Strokes got huge. Kids at our high school started dressing just like their favorite Stroke, girls thought they were sexy (and yours truly was no different; my teenage heart belonged to Julian Casablancas), and they were just fucking cool.
Then of course there were loads of singles, lots of club tours, and The Strokes got bigger. They helped usher in a new style of music: a throwback to garage rock by bands whose names stated with "The". Thanks to The Strokes, already established bands like The White Stripes got recognition while a lot of others hopped on the bandwagon (The Pattern? The Vines?). The band put out their sophomore effort, Room on Fire in 2003, and fell to the sophomore slump. Their third and most recent album, First Impressions of Earth, was a complete disappointment and only had one good song ("You Only Live Once").
The band has taken an indefinite hiatus to pursue other projects: Julian Casablancas released a lackluster solo album in 2009, Albert Hammond Jr. released a couple of mediocre solo efforts, Fabrizo Moretti had Little Joy (again the theme here is mediocre), Nick Valensi had children, and who knows what happened to Nikolai Fraiture. There had been talks of the band getting back together to record soon.
With The Strokes' heyday way past us, it's made me realize how much The Strokes have shaped pop culture as of right now. Prior to the band coming out, no one dressed grungy and ironically. Now it's the norm and what you'd find in places like Wet Seal. Bands have taken a very minimal sound and young kids are getting into lesser mainstream acts. I'm sure with the new dawn of a new decade, we'll get something else and it'll make what we grew up with seem dated but until then, we have The Strokes to thank for that.
Yesterday I nearly had a panic attack realizing this when I was in the shower. Listening to Is This It brings a lot of odd memories for me: times when I was careless, when what mattered most to me was what show I could go to that weekend and how I was going to get there, when music was probably even more important than it is to me now. Realizing that this album, most likely the album of the 2000s, came out almost 10 years ago is like the first sign of my aging. I'm feeling the first pangs of nostalgia and it most certainly won't be the last time I long for my youth.
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