Minimalist Sass. That’s pretty much the best way to describe what’s happening in the modern music scene, most notably in blues and rock. In the past few years especially, small two-man groups have been emerging from the underground and gaining interest in national and worldwide music scenes.
Anyone who was paid attention to the modern flux of blues-based artists won’t be surprised to hear about raw, gritty bands such as The Black Keys, Death From Above 1979, The Kills, The Soledad Brothers, and, most notably, The White Stripes, dominating more exclusive circles of rock. But where did they come from, and where are they going? Why only two members? And most importantly, why have people reacted to these two man bands with such interest?
The primary example of this style is The White Stripes. Emerging from the heavy Detroit garage-rock scene in 1999 with their blistering first album and now poised as one of the leading groups in the rock scene, The White Stripes have still kept themselves faithful to a strange but effective mentality.
As singer/guitarist/pianist Jack White explained to Christopher Scapelitti of Guitar World, “[The White Stripes] are actually based around the number three, even though there are two of us. Its vocals, guitar, and drums, and then rhythm, melody, and storytelling.”
The idea is rock minimalism, using the only most basic elements of music—percussion, melody, and harmony—and working within that restriction. This viewpoint creates a self-imposed limit on their resources making the music more simplistic, raw and directly emotional—hence the need for only two people.
The White Stripes have won two Grammies and have sold millions upon millions of albums worldwide, fully verifying the impact of minimalist rock on modern music.
Following in the heavy steps of the Stripes have been bands with similar attitudes pervading their sound. The Black Keys, a blues band from Akron, Ohio, have been making a huge impression on those discovering their bare, earthy approach to rock music since they formed in 2002.
“Originally, a bass didn’t seem to fit ... We were filling up so much sound with the guitar that we never felt the need to have anyone else playing with us,” said guitarist/singer Dan Auerbach in an interview with Guitar Player’s Jimmy Leslie. The duo’s most recent album, Rubber Factory, was hailed by critics as one of the top 10 rock albums this year and fellow blues-rock fans know it to be absolutely justified.
Apart from the blues, the fuzzed-out and blistering Canadian rock act Death From Above 1979 has risen to popularity, producing intense songs like the single “Romantic Rights”— dominantly harsh, shrill ,and exhilarating. Their tendency toward the two-piece format was more practical.
“It was just something that happened because there were two of us in the house when we would sit and play,” said drummer/singer Sebastien Grainger to Pierre Hamilton from Popmatters.com.
But why is this music so fetching to the average rock listener? Mainly, the fact that it’s just intense, back to basics, honest music. Forget “ Screamo” rock, embellished with typical production and hooks, one-sided artificial sounding metal, and over-polished pop-rock endorsed by MTV to no end—this minimalist sound is based on spontaneity and pure emotion. There are no layers of studio tricks and no defining preconceptions or gimmicks, no distractions from the music.
Amidst a modern pop culture consisting of this is the reactionary music for a new generation, inherited and endorsed on a new form. From Muddy Waters and Son House to Hendrix and Cream to The White Stripes and Death From Above 1979, the newest group of rock artists find themselves rebelling against their system and searching for the direct connection that only two intense musicians in their rawest state can reveal.
In their eyes, rock has been bent and broken by clichés and predictability, and these minimalist groups seek to mend it with solitary honesty and heavy soul.