The World’s Best Female Drummer: An Ode to Meg White
As I was walking home from seeing Blink 182 at Liverpool Echo Arena in 2012, I was listening to a conversation between some drunk men. One of them asked something along the lines, “Are there actually any female drummers?” There was a pause.
One man declares, “I can only name the one from The White Stripes.”
The group murmurs and another one says, “She’s not really a proper drummer though.”
My 14 year old self filled with rage, as - although I was walking home from a pop punk gig - the garage rock, bluesy sounds of The White Stripes dominated my Itunes library. Even before I was gifted the mobile music library of an iPod Nano or a Sony Ericsson, my mum and dad would solely play MTV Rocks music videos on TV, and since I could stand I was dancing along to Meg White’s rhythmic, symbol crashing sounds. For me, they stood out the most amongst the rock noise our home was constantly filled with. For my fifth birthday I received a small plastic drum kit so I could sit next to the TV and play alongside Fell in Love With a Girl and The Hardest Button to Button.
As I write this, it’s the 20th anniversary of Elephant and we’ve been treated to some more live recordings from their 2003 tour at The Aragon Ballroom, Chicago, including Goin’ Back To Memphis. This track is impeccable live, as proven on their Conan appearance in 2003. Jack White talks directly to his bandmate and wife Meg White: “Meg, I’ll tell you one more thing. How many things have I told you Meg? Well, here’s one more.” Her head tilts forward and she’s glaring towards Jack, a Kubrick stare, she’s hitting the same two notes as he goes crazy. They manage to create so much noise between just the two of them, and it’s the simplistic one-two of the drums that makes this work so well. Cymbals crashing, a cowbell and the thud thud thud of My Doorbell, Hello Operator, Hand Springs, and the rest of their discography pathed a new sound for indie rock.
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There’s nothing worse than watching a band and feeling like you’re sitting in a music shop on a high street where everyone is trying to show each other up. Instead of a band, it becomes four musicians playing by themselves alongside each other. The White Stripes took advantage of this oversaturation and proved the age old adage that less is more. It’s almost funny to see people talk badly about Meg White’s drumming abilities, because it’s clear they missed the point.
“Meg stuck to her role, and her quiet, reserved persona only made her all the more enigmatic and her drumming all the more fascinating.”
My memories of The White Stripes and the backlash against Meg leads neatly onto the recent tweet from journalist Lachlan Markay, which stated: “Yeah, yeah I’ve heard all the ‘but it’s a carefully crafted sound mannnn!’ takes. I’m sorry Meg White was terrible and no band is better for having shitty percussion.” What followed was many musicians, including Karen Elson who was previously married to Jack White, letting him know that he was wrong.
This type of response is something you wouldn’t see 10 years ago: Meg White was the ‘girl drummer’, The White Stripes were seen to be the only band in the world with a woman being on percussion. And while The White Stripes thrived on a type of novelty - from pretending to be siblings to the white and red colour scheme - Meg was the drummer for a good reason, it was half of her band, and she was just as responsible for creating the recognizable sound of The White Stripes as Jack White was with his lyricism and high-pitch, bluesy guitar. She created a balance, both in the band’s music and in the band’s attitude, that was the perfect recipe to make the duo so impactful.
Despite the constant debate of whether Meg was ‘good’ or not, the drummer never made any sort of response to these criticisms. Unlike Jack White, the outspoken multi-instrumentalist who was clearly born to be a frontman - Meg stuck to her role, and her quiet, reserved persona only made her all the more enigmatic and her drumming all the more fascinating.
As Jack sings in De Stiji:
“You try to tell her what to do
And all she does is stare at you
Her stare is louder than your voice
Because truth doesn't make a noise”
It’s unsurprising that Meg disappeared from the public eye after the break-up of The White Stripes. It was stated that she was suffering from acute anxiety, and it’s difficult to imagine how anyone would be able to cope as one of two members of the most upcoming indie rock band of the 2000’s, all whilst knowing that you’re an anomaly in the industry you’re working in.
We’re now seeing women in alternative music become part of the norm. It was frustrating that the only women featured in the music I listened to and felt I could relate to as a 12 year old in 2010 were Hayley Williams and Meg White. As a baby feminist, I always felt like a hypocrite for idolising endless men with guitars. Now, through a wider accessibility to music and the decline of gatekeeping (although please - don’t make any White Stripes tracks a trending sound on TikTok - just stick to sharing photo dumps of Meg and Jack in the 90’s alongside an Alex G song), it’s easier than ever for young girls who appreciate the fuzzy, loud sound of garage rock, or any genre, to find an idol they can personally relate to.
Words: Charlotte Amy Landrum
