Despite the attempt of grunge to crash their party, the 1990s saw R&B, rap, and boy bands rule the airwaves. This transition away from commercial success for rock acts is evident in their disappearance from the Billboard Hot 100, as R&B musicians like Boyz II Men, Toni Braxton, Mariah Carey, and Whitney Houston dominated the charts. In my own brief research observing the top ten songs from the first week of each year between 1995 and 1999, the only non-legacy rock acts to make the list were the Goo Goo Dolls and Blue Deep Something (I don’t recognize the latter either). Their hit song 

 was the band’s only commercially successful track, and as a YouTube commenter on the song’s music video noted, sounds like it was made expressly for the TV show 

. In this era, there was a prevailing sense among labels, listeners, and maybe even musicians themselves that rock was diminishing in the public consciousness and lost its status at the peak of the music hierarchy.

There was something brewing, however, as the world edged closer to the millennium. In New York City, it was a few kids with strong global roots and big dreams. In Detroit, it was an apprentice upholster and his ex-wife. In California, it was a broke guitarist who teamed up with his friend and an Englishman. I am, of course, talking about the bands The Strokes, The White Stripes, and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Although they inhabited three different parts of the country, they share an odd camaraderie: each band formed in the late 90s, sought to reinvigorate rock music in their own distinct way, and released pivotal albums in the year 2001 to usher in the garage rock revival. Let’s take a look at these three albums and the bands behind them – the two you already know, and the one you might not.

In the late 1990s, Julian Casabalancas, the son of a wealthy Spanish model agency mogul, teamed up with French-Tunisian Nick Valensi, Brazilian Fabrizio Moretti, and the French-educated Nikolai Fraiture to make music. Not only do the band members, who formed the group known as The Strokes, have undoubtedly the coolest sounding name of any musical act, but their multicultural roots certainly contributed to the revolutionary sound of their 2001 album 

. Leading up to the release the group released singles “Someday,” “Last Nite,” and “Hard to Explain,” which despite a lack of success in the US, were well received by the UK charts.

Although the first two of these singles received more significant airplay after the album’s release, “Hard to Explain” offers a more interesting musical study. It features a strong vocal performance from Casablancas from the start, as he hits the opening lyrics “Was an honest man” with all the youthful gusto you could desire, particularly in live performances of the song. Albert and Nick’s guitars compliment the vocals in such a satisfying manner, as Nikolai and Fab lock in at the rhythm section to drive the song forward. The song is enhanced by a perfect breakdown in the chorus, with Albert’s whiny guitar combined with Julian’s lyrical contradictions leaving the listener with a strange sense of nostalgia and longing. Much has been written about the success of The Strokes in the aftermath of 

 becoming an undisputed leader of the garage rock movement. But a different band from the Motor City was just as important in propelling this new sound into the mainstream. 

The Detroit rock scene in the mid-1990s was exploding with talent. From the Dirtbombs to the Von Bondies, the latter you might recognize from their single “C’mon C’mon” used in seemingly every commercial in the mid-2000s, the city was cultivating great rock bands, but individually lacked the national attention to make it big. One Detroit band, however, formed by Jack and Meg White, would make it big. The duo, who were briefly a couple before separating and adopting a brother and sister stage persona, personified their name as The White Stripes. The band followed a strict dress code, only wearing black, white, and red, and combined psychedelic imagery with a hard-hitting style of rock and roll. After releasing their self-titled debut in 1999 and receiving critical acclaim with their 2000 follow-up 

 established the “White Stripes” sound that would launch the pair into stardom.

The opener “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground” introduced the world to Jack’s gritty and emotional vocal style along with his heavy use of unique guitar distortion to make the band sound significantly larger than the two-piece it was. The most commercially successful hit of the record came with “Fell in Love With a Girl,” which exemplifies Meg’s simple but animated style of drumming, allowing Jack to unleash his sharp vocals and a tight guitar riff. The album also famously features a subdued acoustic cut “We’re Going to Be Friends” which shows a softer but equally powerful side of the band. This release, although very successful in its own right, also paved the way for the release of the band’s fourth album 

 in 2003. This album was one of the most critically acclaimed of the year, and even decade by critics. It also released “Seven Nation Army” into the world, one of the most recognizable and ubiquitous stadium chant songs of the 21st century. The Strokes and The White Stripes are collectively credited with saving rock music by introducing a new generation to the genre. However, the efforts of groups that did not receive the same spotlight have largely been forgotten, as the case for one band coming out of the West Coast. 

Peter Hayes, a guitarist who ended a short stint with the San Francisco-based psychedelic rock band Brian Jonestown Massacre, wanted to keep making experimental rock music. With the help of bassist Robert Levon Been and drummer Nick Jago, Hayes founded the band Black Rebel Motorcycle Club to pursue this mission. Listening to their 2001 debut self-titled album 

, Hayes’ musical background is quite evident from most of the record: tracks like “At My Door,” with its absence of drums, prominent tambourine, and laid-back attitude, feel straight out of BJM frontman Anton Newcombe’s playbook. Other songs like “Too Real” sound like something off the Beatles’ White Album, played with the relaxed demeanor of a jam band.

However, the songs that are most fondly remembered from the album and would go on to define the band in the image of the masses were the bold, punchy, and expressive rock anthems. Their distinct sound includes Jago’s simple but passion-filled drum beat on “Red Eyes and Tears,” Hayes’ danceable riffs and subdued vocals on “Love Burns,” along with Been’s heavy use of bass distortion. These songs, led by the radio hit “Spread Your Love,” helped the band chart in Britain, where the band still remains most popular. BRMC also saw success in the US through the song’s prominence in commercial spots and movies. However, despite the second album 

 also charting in the UK, every subsequent release seems to have fallen deeper into obscurity. 

Although the music industry is a beast and difficult to predict, I would venture to say Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s lack of lasting mainstream success comes down to the nature of the band itself. Peter Hayes is a rather elusive man, hardly doing interviews and always exhibiting the down-to-earth quality which is not associated with rock stars. BRMC comes from the tight-knit West Coast rock scene, where success is an afterthought to the music. They may never have the eccentricity of The White Stripes or the reckless youthful disregard of The Strokes, but Black Rebel Motorcycle Club also deserves a spot in rock history for the movement they pushed forward and the unique sound they crafted.

2001: A Garage Rock Odyssey

My most memorable experience during my semester abroad in London was undoubtedly attending the surprise album release party of 

 put on by the band IDLES. After by chance discovering the Instagram post announcing the concert and managing to grab a ticket in the ten minutes before they sold out, I walked to the rather small 1,200-capacity music hall in the Hackney neighborhood. I would have missed the venue, which was off on a narrow side street, if not for several people standing in front of the nondescript building well before doors were set to open. After waiting nearly an hour, and getting the usual odd look from security trying to find the date of birth on my U.S. license, I claimed my spot at the front stage barricades and conversed with other IDLES fans. This included topics like Brexit, Boris Johnson, and all the other things that come up as an American in a crowd of politically minded young British people.

Social issues are an excellent place to start when discussing the rock band IDLES – but I hesitate to define their sound any further, as they famously dislike the punk-rock label attributed to their music. IDLES formed in 2009, when frontman Joe Talbot and bassist Adam Devonshire met guitarist Mark Bowen while studying in the city of Bristol, England. Fast forward a few years, and the band’s lineup was solidified with the addition of guitarist Lee Kiernan and drummer Jon Beavis. After releasing several singles and EPs in the early 2010s, the band truly broke into the U.K. alternative scene in 2017 with the release of their debut album 

’s lyrical intensity separated the album from their earlier releases, with songs like “Mother” and “Exeter” taking on issues of poverty, sexual assault, and fragile masculinity. Their sophomore album 

followed a similar sonic tone as their debut, complete with even more poignant social themes, but also produced massive commercial hits such as “Danny Nedelko” and “Never Fight a Man with a Perm.” After a brief COVID hiatus, the band returned with albums 

These additions to IDLES’s catalog saw their sound evolve to include synth- and string-driven melodies, particularly on tracks “Progress” and “A Hymn,” while providing familiar high-energy hits like “Mr. Motivator” and “Car Crash.”

The band, and specifically Joe Talbot, hold nothing back when expressing their opinions on topics that other rock acts might all together avoid. Talbot often praises the National Health Service, which provided him and his family care he couldn’t otherwise afford, and calls out attempts by conservative politicians to privatize the healthcare sector. Lee Kiernan frequently speaks on his personal struggles with alcoholism, and how joining the band aided his journey to sobriety. The band’s lyrics reflect their openness to discussing these difficult topics, such as the single “Mercedes Marxist” that reflects on drinking culture, proclaiming “Suicide’s for cowards he said / While sat drinking himself to death.”

The effect that IDLES, and particularly the release of 

in 2018, has had on the U.K. musical landscape is quite monumental. By reaching U.S. audiences, which were starved of politically driven music with a hard edge at a time of great social turmoil, the U.K. rock and alt scene entered a new Golden Age. New acts seemingly came out of nowhere on a daily basis, from the poetically-inclined Yard Act, to the rhythmically driven Irish band Fontaines D.C., to even the pop-rock and melodically driven band Wet Leg.

After returning home to Boston to start my first semester on the school’s main campus, I was well aware of the band Wet Leg. Their catchy bass lines and witty lyrics seared themselves into mind after seeing them open up for the band Sports Team while still in London. When I was able to attend their first headlining tour at the Paradise Rock Club in spring, my admiration for their music only grew. Unlike Talbot, who gladly screams “Don’t watch Fox News it’ll give you cancer” into the mic on a nightly basis, Hester Chambers and Rhian Teasdale, who front Wet Leg, are only able to muster up a gentle “Thank you” in between songs before giggling and moving along. Both Chamber and Teasdale wear their shyness on their sleeves, and admit they wrote the songs from their self-titled debut 

expecting no one to listen to them. But all it took was one smash hit single titled “Chaise Longue,”which charted in the UK and received significant airplay in the U.S., to throw the duo into stardom.

Unlike IDLES, who berates the audience with a massive wall of sound, Wet Leg take a more subdued approach, with relaxed hooks and clean vocals. But behind their unassuming melodies are rather direct lyrics, such as describing love in the title track “Being in Love”as “the world is caving in” and a “fucked up trip.” This continues on the aptly-titled track “Piece of Shit,” where Rhian sings (presumably about an ex) “You’re like a piece of shit, you either sink or float / So you take her for a ride on your daddy’s boat.” The pure absurdity of the lyrics on songs like “Oh No”and “Wet Dream”act in perfect contradiction to the clean-cut demeanor the band outwardly presents. But the closing track “Too Late Low”acts as a rather blunt sonic climax for the LP, with a faster tempo, hard hitting bass drum, multiple layers of guitar tracks, and the occasional “Oh my God” scream in the chorus to top it off. So despite Wet Leg’s initial appearance as the polar opposite of a band like IDLES, dissecting their music reveals they share a similar taste for ironic lyrics, and at the end of the day, both write music that’s meant to be fun for the masses.My friends, the future of music is very bright. Just the other day, I saw the U.K. based artist Wunderhorse open up for Fontaines D.C. at the House of Blues. His fiery single “Leader of the Pack”has all the potential to transform the singer/guitarist into the next indie rock ‘it kid,’ much like “Chaise Longue”did for Wet Leg. But if the multitude of British indie bands headlining coast-to-coast U.S. and European tours are any indication, we are just at the beginning of a (4th?) British rock renaissance.

Holden LeBlanc