> Second, let's not confuse hype with cold, hard cash.  These bands were
> supported with the kind of big money push that many artiusts here only dream
> about-- record promootion budgets, advertising, etc.  I saw ads in Radio &
> Records for the Strokes, the Hives, and I think the White Stripes.  This
> wasn't hype as in, critics darlings or something like that.  It was the
> attention that comes with a price tag, that is bought and paid for, because
> someone was footing the bill.

Yeah, but as others have pointed out, the White Stripes' first few albums were on Sympathy For The Record 
Industry, hardly a major label with a big promotion budget. They're a very rare example these days of a band 
becoming big because they actually built a fanbase and a great live reputation (and by big I don't mean Phish big 
or something like that - the White Stripes have become omnipresent on the radio recently).

Personally, the White Stripes are far from my favourite band , but that's mostly because they're still copying 
their influences more than being truly original. But their influences are good ones, Jack White *is* an excellent 
slide player and singer (Meg White is dreadful, but not so much that it wrecks the music), they're obviously 
music geeks, and they've got some very good songs. 

Obviously it would be nice to see, say, The Negro Problem or The Psychotic Reaction getting the kind of sales 
the White Stripes get, but I can't see it as a bad thing that a band with the ability to write good songs and with 
a sense of pop/rock/blues history are becoming successful. Yes they used some publicity gimmicks to get more 
press, but I don't see that as a bad thing in itself...

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