Meg White Is Amazing!!

I think the CMJ set was into them after De Stijl came out. I remember one of my college roommates being a pretty big fan but it may have been one of those things where White Blood Cells came out and everyone picked up the prior releases at the same time

Not underground, but honestly there were so many bands that went absolutely nowhere that were momentarily college radio darlings and toured small venues that it works for certain levels of "underground"

The Meg White piece reminded me of old pieces about trying to interview J.D. Salinger, where the whole point was about the writer trying but failing to interview J.D. Salinger and Do YOU SEE?

This kind of piece only enhanced salinger’s mystique and the same will be true of meg white.

Does white want to cultivate mystique or merely to be left alone? She pointedly doesn’t say.

I like the idea that she enjoys being mysterious because the alternative seems to be that she found being famous horrifying and unpleasant due to the rampany misogyny in the indie music scene.

And that is depressing.

The worst part about that piece is that makes serious use of the term "indie sleaze." I don't see anything wrong with a Meg White appreciate piece, structured around the idea of seeking a new interview with her (it doesn't sound like the writer stalked/hounded her or anything). Anyway, I learned some stuff I didn't know... Olivia Rodrigo being a fan, for instance.

Indie sleaze is a meaningful term, it’s more of an aesthetic than a music genre or scene though. Think american apparel circa 2007-2012.

(it doesn't sound like the writer stalked/hounded her or anything)

I don't think the author was peering in Meg's windows or anything, but ffs, "roughly three years of persistent (yet respectful) inquiry"? That can be extremely triggering to someone known to have anxiety about fame and attention, and to Meg may well have felt like stalking/hounding. If it's known after the initial inquiry that the subject does not do interviews, fucking drop it. The writer of the piece isn't entitled to an interview, nor is the audience.

If the piece had been something along the lines of, "Here's why Meg White is great, here's how influential and important she is," with a parenthetical "(Meg White doesn't do interviews)," that'd be fine. But three years of inquiries is something that can actually cause extreme stress to someone and weigh heavily on their mental and emotional health. Knowing what the writer does about Meg's stance on interviews and her anxiety, that much pestering is in fact fundamentally disrespectful.

xp Keep it to fashion, I say... don't retroactively refer to the 2000s rock scene that way.

I totally agree no one's entitled to an interview (and three years of persistence does sound like a lot), but I'm assuming the writer was never a jerk about it, as it doesn't sound like Meg was particularly aggrieved by the inquiries.

I agree with tarfumes

I don't think there's enough context to know whether this was actually bugging Meg White or not or if the mutual contact even relayed anything

three years asking for something after a no is 100% jerk behaviour and it's irrelevant if you asked nicely the 2nd-402nd times

One specific thing about the piece that bemused/annoyed me was the weirdly convoluted way Sympathy for the Record Industry was described. You can just say the name! (And they're still around, just.)

she wasn't asking her directly ffs

Didn't think Meg was being hounded for an interview. Doesn't sound like it caused Meg "extreme stress". Surely people around her would've cut the interviewer off at any sign of a thing like that.

I never have given a fuck about The White Stripes so it was an interesting enough read.

That's actually a factor for me, too – as a non-fan, my interest was held.

Before White Blood Cells, the band had been, for the most part, an underground secret.

is this really accurate?

I'd say yeah, in the sense that they were still playing small clubs in 2000 and along the lines of the Dirtbombs in popularity (or below, maybe).

i thought it was an interesting article. Meg White, like Darcy from Pumpkins before her, is someone who had an awful lot of fans who wondered what the hell happened to them... it's kind of amazing to think people can actually disappear in this day and age (Darcy I understand got into drugs, then started to pop up again here and there, sometimes in disturbing ways).

with Meg, you wonder...does she still shop for groceries? do lots of people in her community know her and keep her privacy intact? Or is she well off enough that she has everything delivered to whatever house she is sequestered in?

Bobbie Gentry is another vanished person, though I understand she is/was very well off. There was a picture of her from sometime in the past 10-15 years that showed up a while ago.

Meg White Flight

I saw a recent photo of her, i think just in my insta feed bc i follow other indie-ish content. She is likely only “hiding” from journalists.

I saw a recent photo of her, i think just in my insta feed bc i follow other indie-ish content. She is likely only “hiding” from journalists.

She is not a recluse. I used to see her bumming around.

It’s a very 2023 idea to describe anyone who isn’t constantly clamoring for attention a recluse.

I say this as someone who constantly clamors for attention.

Bobbie Gentry is another vanished person, though I understand she is/was very well off.

Case in point: this article, which (IMO) is significantly less interesting than the Meg White one, and doesn’t function as much of an appreciation or meditation on Gentry’s artistry or influence, but is literally pretty much just “let me see if I can track her down…”.

(Spoiler alert, if you’re not able to get past the paywall:)

After a few rings, a pleasant woman’s voice said: “Hello.”

I introduced myself and my newspaper. I said I was looking for the person whose name appears on the property owner’s record.

There was a dead pause of several seconds. My fingers clenched open and closed.

“There’s no one here by that name,” she said, finally.

I apologized and started to read back the number, to make sure I had dialed it correctly, and she hung up.

What a dick

This is just like this Sundays thing from a few years ago, right down to the title

https://longreads.com/2019/07/30/searching-for-the-sundays/

I just remembered my friend’s ex who was an ok guy but was super-pissed about his exit from Detroit and being in bands there. Apparently his bandmate spent all their money, or so he said, and he ended up selling all his production gear to other Detroit musicians. I guess some of the stuff he sold to Brendan Benson was in the background pictures in a Raconteurs album sleeve

Any attention or fame is one of those things where it can tip either way

Oh god that longreads piece is so frickin cringe.

Hey dood the people you want to interview have made it crystal clear that they do not wish to be interviewed by the likes of you; you could just let it go instead of publishing 750 words about not getting the interview you wanted.

Also fuck off.

I assumed that Brindley and the other members would be intrigued by my questions, which I saw as refreshingly personal. I figured they would be glad to discuss the members’ experiences both inside and outside the band

Wow, you actually think that your list of questions will change the dynamic? Like, people who have been intentionally quiet for 25 years will magically open up because of your refreshing questions?

I have been a professional journalist myself, and even at my most arrogant I would never have ascribed this kind of power to my reportorial approach.

The Sundays are not stupid. If they wanted to be interviewed they would be interviewed. They're not sitting at home waiting for a certain someone to ask them the right questions. They either want to talk, or they don't. Mostly, they don't. They know what they are doing.

Uh, wrong thread I guess

i think it's pretty cool, in 2023, to talk about meg white and what she accomplished and the shit she endured and how much she meant to people (including the author?)

centering it around how 'wow she won't talk to me' is absurd tho. and god bless meg for *not* talking to someone who would frame it that way

Xpost no not at all, I was reminded of The Sundays' thing too.

I hate the strawman mystery of these pieces - just because you don't know what someone's thought process is doesn't automatically make it a mystery. Also, your lifestory in investigating this purported mystery rarely justifies the word count.

Leave Meg alone. I remember that when Pink Floyd started touring again in the 80s, Syd Barrett would get a new set of fanzine writers and/or stalkers trying to sneak a photograph (or worse, just knock on his front door)

https://townsquare.media/site/295/files/2017/12/macca-farleyv2.jpg

Remember when you were in the Beatles? That was cool.

Fucking love Meg White’s drumming. Don’t give a shit about any other aspect of her life that she’s not interested in discussing. First half of this thread is puerile and repulsive.

I was reminded of Richard Simmons.

This isn't even the worst Meg thread from early ilx.

Jack White’s entire career separate from Meg is the best argument for her value as a drummer.

^^^^^^^^^^

OTM, that's also my go-to argument. How many Raconteurs songs do you know?

"Steady as she goes", that's it.

And, as for the the Dead Weather, um...

i'd thought about posting that elle article earlier but ended up not doing so after looking at all the meg white threads on ILX. The general White Stripes threads honestly weren't much better, where meg was concerned. just seeing it all at once made me so sad, just how much fucking shit she faced while the band was active.

personally, I actually really liked the article as a recognition of Meg and all the crap she went through, though I agree that the framing of it as the hunt for an interview is lame. It would have worked just fine as a long appreciation piece. 

Roz, exact same!! I recently looked up MW here and saw how bad it was and like 1000 posts about her body and couldn’t bring myself to revive until this article and I still didn’t post it bc I didn’t want to see the grossness all over again.

Completely agree that you don’t need to find her and force her to talk to write an appreciation piece which I also agree is long overdue.

In addition to the young women she inspired I wonder what the collateral damage of the misogyny was — we’ll never know because you can’t count discouraged people but I’m sure (from my own experience) that there are a.non-zero number of women who actually chose not to pursue drumming bc of the way they saw her being treated. Who would sign up for that but the most courageous who probably would have started playing without the inspiration of MW??

Even when I finally decided to start playing and learning there were always chucklebutts who would say discouraging things like “well good luck, there’s hardly a shortage of awesome drummers in (city where I live)” Fortunately they did not deter me but obviously I still think about it from time to time.

Basically everyone but obsessive Jack White weirdos totally agrees and acknowledges that the White Stripes is BY FAR the best work he's ever done and yet there's still some question about how important the other person in the band was? It's kind of like debating why Mick Jagger solo albums aren't as good as Stones albums, gee I wonder.

If I had worn the outfit that Meg wore on the cover of Icky Thump, I would totally have gone into hiding as well.

disappointed you're not open-minded enough to embrace the Pearly way, scott

fame isn't really worth it if you have to wear that hat.

Yesterday's Meg White shitposters are Today's Horny Dad posters.