Maebh Springbett
For garage rock fans this month marks 20 years of Elephant, The White Stripes’ fourth studio album featuring the infamous ‘Seven Nation Army’. In anticipation, journalist, Lachlan Markay, tweeted in March a resoundingly harsh comment of Meg White – drummer for the American rock duo alongside vocalist and guitarist Jack White.
Meg White
“The tragedy of The White Stripes is how great they would have been with a half decent drummer.”
In his now-deleted tweet, Markay criticised Meg White’s drumming ability, stating “The tragedy of The White Stripes is how great they would have been with a half-decent drummer.” He goes on, “Yeah, yeah I’ve heard all the ‘but it’s a carefully crafted sound mannnn!’ takes, I’m sorry Meg White was terrible and no band is better for having s****y percussion.”
“I get [criticism] sometimes, and I go through periods where it really bothers me.”
This is nothing new. As a drummer, White has faced criticism since The White Stripes’ formation in 1997. In an interview with Modern Drummer in 2002, White explained: “I get [criticism] sometimes, and I go through periods where it really bothers me. But then I think about it, and I realise that this is what is really needed for this band. And I just try to have as much fun with it as possible.”
During the same interview, her bandmate and then-husband continued: “She’s perfect; she’s the best part of the band, really. Her style is just so simplistic that I can work around it and work with it.”
As leaders of the 2000s garage rock revival, The White Stripes picked up four Grammy Awards and were named the sixth greatest duo of all time by Rolling Stone in 2015. Carried by White’s minimalist drumming style, their raw sound and clever use of limitations set them apart from the rest. This simplicity is what earns award-winning tracks like ‘Seven Nation Army’, featuring a steady groove and the same fluctuating guitar riff throughout, well over a billion streams on Spotify to date.
Backlash
From the start, White’s contribution to one of the most defining bands of the 21st century has been diminished and once again, twelve years since their breakup in February 2011, Markay has dredged up this tired debate. Off the radar since the band’s split, with no online presence and never having given an interview, Meg White has made no response herself. Perhaps Markay felt her evasive public presence would shield him from any serious backlash. He was mistaken.
“My screams are for you Meg! You are and always will be my role model and hero!”
On Instagram, Jack White dedicated a heartfelt poem to his former bandmate which began: “To be born in another time, any era but our own would’ve been fine.”
Karen Elson, model, singer-songwriter and Jack White’s ex-wife, tweeted: “To the journalist who dissed her, keep my ex-husband’s ex-wife’s name out of your f***ing mouth. (Please and Thank You).” And in a touching tribute, drummer Nandi Bushell posted her cover of ‘Seven Nation Army’, captioned: “My screams are for you Meg! You are and always will be my role model and hero!”
keep my ex husband’s ex wife’s name out of your fucking mouth!!! https://t.co/6yPw81UiRN
— kristin (@jkac) March 14, 2023
Having deleted his original tweet and added: “Bad music take haver” to his Twitter profile, Markay proceeded to apologise: “It was an over-the-top take on TWS and White as a drummer, and was, let’s face it, just truly awful in every way. Petty, obnoxious, just plain wrong.” To White he went on, “To Meg White: I am sorry. Really. And to women in the music business generally, who I think are disproportionately subject to this sort of s***, I am sorry to have fed that as well.”
Gender
Markay has an awareness of the barriers facing women in the music industry. It is this sort of discouragement that to this day contributes massively to underrepresentation, especially in the percussion world. In 2005 Modern Drummer published ‘The Drummer: 100 Years of Rhythmic Power and Invention’. Of the 529 drummers listed in its index, just seven were women. And even when they are featured, women are much more susceptible to careless journalism such as Markay’s.
“My advice is to do it! And to call yourself a drummer as soon as you do!”
In response to the gender disparity apparent in percussion, Mindy Abovitz created Tom Tom Magazine, the only percussion magazine in the world dedicated solely to women, in 2009. This was a crucial stepping-stone, not only to credit the talent of existing drummers but to encourage young people who, after seeing Abovitz on a front cover, may pick up a pair of drumsticks themselves. In an interview with Sound Girls, when asked what advice she would give to young girls who want to play the drums, Abovitz replied “My advice is to do it! And to call yourself a drummer as soon as you do!”
Ultimately, the fact that women who play the drums are almost always referred to as ‘female drummers’ encapsulates the issue. While women deserve to be recognised for their skill without the prefix of their gender, by granting them visibility as musicians the archaic division of ‘male’ and ‘female’, damaging to those drummers who fall outside these binaries, could become obsolete.
A benchmark in garage rock and an inspiration for a generation of drummers, Meg White’s contribution to the music industry, while overlooked by some, is revered by many. Nothing, not even a thoughtless tweet, should stand in the way of any aspiring drummer.
Image courtesy of Gabriel Barletta via Unsplash. See Image license here. No changes were made to this image.
Maebh Springbett
While Head of Entertainment for Empoword Journalism, Maebh works in the Careers department at the University of Reading. Their writing focuses on music and has been published by the likes of Music Is To Blame and Dead Good Music. They aspire to work in non-fiction publishing.