Wealthy heirs could perform working-class grit as authentic counterculture

Evidence

Fittingly, the Strokes embodied the contradictions of downtown New York. Their greasy hair and dirty clothes obscured their privilege. Lead singer Julian Casablancas, offspring of model agency founder John Casablancas and Miss Denmark 1965, Jeanette Christiansen, met guitarist Nick Valensi and drummer Fabrizio Moretti at the private Dwight School in Manhattan. Casablancas first encountered guitarist Albert Hammond Jr., the son of hit LA songwriter Albert Hammond, at the legendary Swiss finishing school Institut Le Rosey. They reconnected in New York after high school and formed the band. Hammond’s father bought them equipment for professional gigs, and models from Père Casablancas’s agency in the audience created buzz for their early concerts. The Strokes landed a profile in fashion mag V before getting a record deal, and they appeared on the cover of the UK’s NME before putting out an album. They eventually signed with major label RCA, run by veteran mogul Clive Davis. As music critic Ryan Schreiber wrote at the time, the Strokes were “a band that’s seen enough publicity in 2001 to make bin Laden jealous.” — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 55

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to ‘death of the sellout’ theme — privilege and insider access became compatible with an anti-establishment pose; parallels the manufactured-rebellion critique later aimed at pop acts. — connects to: Even running form is learned culturally from prestigious elders — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 264