Review of White Stripes’ Music Performance

Posted: August 6th, 2013

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Review of White Stripes’ Music Performance

Question 1

The extract on the music produced and performed by the American band, White Stripes shows the writer’s creativity in expressing her views and feelings. The use of diction, description, imagery, colloquialism, sarcasm, contrast and rhetorical questions enables her to communicate her message in a manner that is comprehensive to the reader. She gives a vivid description of the eccentric brother-sister duo. By using concrete language, she describes the way the duo was dressed in their performance at Brighton’s Concorde 2 by mentioning the colors namely, subtle black, red and white. The language used is picturesque and draws the reader into the imagination of the actual event. She also expresses the oddity that the two performers, Jack and Meg display on stage and this grasps the attention of the reader as he or she imagines the rare uniqueness that is spoken about in the extract effortlessly. She is sarcastic in her comparisons and imagery. When she mentions the rumor that had branded the two as a divorced couple, her sarcasm is evident when she insinuates that their children would have been weird. She also ridicules Jack’s paleness and compares him to a young boy who was near a corpse. Their weird visual display is also another aspect that shows how the writer is sarcastic in a subtle way. All through the extract, she gives comparisons that can make the reader familiar with her context. Her colloquial language gives a relaxed setting and exposes her message effectively because it creates a conversational tone. The tone of the passage is informal, making the reader to be at ease. Since the writer appears negative about the band at first and begins to relent towards the end, she employs contrast that enables the reader to compare both sides and make their own judgments.

The writer’s choice of words suits the context and enhances comprehension. Words such as eccentric, odd, duo and vocals among many others are used by the writer to establish the setting of the passage. A reader can be able to identify the main themes through diction which helps them to connect words to specificity. Therefore, a reader’s reaction is strongly influenced by the diction the writer employs. In the mixture of informal and formal language, the writer expresses her neutrality in communication. She shows her wonders through rhetorical questions where she wants the reader to develop his or her opinion on the issue addressed. This creates a conversational platform that allows the reader to evaluate the main theme and give tentative answers to the rhetorical questions. The writer portrays Jack and Meg as a duo who despite their bizarre musical concept are aggressive to remould the future rock and roll music. The colloquial language makes the target readers remember their youth. The distinctive voice of the writer and her style of writing are influenced by her sarcastic and appraisal tone. She is sarcastic about the appearance of the duo on stage, their musical identity and some of the songs in their popular album. The language used by the writer in the passage helps the reader to understand the purpose of the writer, and in this case, the main purpose of the writer is to show both the weaknesses of the White Stripes based on their music and performance. In the beginning, she introduces them to the readers on her negative note and then gives the review a twist with further progression when expresses her amusement when they perform their famous tracks at Brighton’s Concorde 2. Thus, the writer’s language increases the effectiveness of communication because she engages the readers in the extract and this allows them to make their judgment on the White Stripes.

Question 2

            The Detroit duo, White Stripes are famously known in America for their eccentric performances and the popular 15-track album White Blood Cells. Nevertheless, the odd American band’s performance did not seem to deliver professionally in their performance at Brighton’s Concorde 2. It would be illogical to rate their audience attendance and that of professional artists in the rock and roll music industry. It seems that they have untapped talent that they can realize and deliver with professionalism. The synchrony of vocals was not apparent from the beginning although Jack tried blending the strumming of the guitar with the melody. Without harmony in a band, a performance is not warranted. What is the basis of wallowing in mediocrity if your plan in the future is to be a legend in the music industry? There is tough competition between upcoming musician, both solo and band-oriented. Therefore, the White Stripes should improve on their flaws before new music artists overtake them in their own race. The production of voices might serve as uniqueness but overdoing it made the vocal output something that can be mistaken for irritating screeching sounds. Most of their tracks in the album White Blood Cells fair although my attention was not captured by the message in the songs. I was not entangled in the moment because the performers lacked charisma that would lure the audience into their music dimension. The band should practice rhythm, sound and harmony to avoid mediocre performance in the future since it is clear that White Stripes are striving to be icons in Rock and Roll. There were remarkable moments on stage, but they seemed to be diluted by the myriads of irregularities in the performance. It was commendable to realize later that the American band communicates stories, but their performance would be much better if they incorporated a variety of issues in their songs.

The band should focus on releasing another album to surprise the audience in their next performance. Unlike the recent album, it should feature creatively composed, all-rounded and harmonious songs that can boost their image as musicians and performing artists. Every activity on stage has an impact on the concentration of the audience. The White Stripes should dress to suit their performance because when they exude in the randomness and peculiarity; chances are that the audience will shift their attention on that. If this happens, their music will not be listened to critically, and they might get the wrong feedback from the audience. The grooming of the Detroit duo during the concert was not exactly appeasing. Lastly, the sound at the stage was not of quality, and this also played a part in the flaws of the stage performance of the White Stripes. However, the band has a promising future in the music industry if it focuses on improvement and enhances creativity.