Chords for How Jack White Uses Color

Legend has it, early in the White Stripes career, they got an offer from an [E] independent label called Bobsled Records.
[Am] The negotiations were going smoothly until the label made one [C] demand.
[Dm] They wanted their logo on the White Stripes CD spine.
[E] So why was this a deal breaker?
[Am] It's simple.
The green logo didn't fit the White Stripes color scheme.
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Red, white, and [E] black was a sacred part of what Meg and I were doing, [Am] Jack White told the New York Times.
This kind of [Dm] stalwart devotion to aesthetics has helped Jack White craft a standout [E] career.
Let's take a closer look.
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[Dm] _ _ _ _ [C] Color is one of the most powerful tools in branding.
It's used by corporations, sports teams, and even entire countries to create a sense of identity and community.
Yet musicians use it sparingly.
They'll often brand themselves for a period with album artwork or even keep a single logo across an entire career,
but they seldom have the singular color identity that other brands have.
This [Em] isn't the case with Jack White.
From the very beginning, the White Stripes were red, white, and black.
They [Bm] wore only these three colors when performing on stage.
They featured only these three colors in their album artwork.
All of their music videos were dominated by these three colors.
Even the band's [Am] name conjures up the color scheme.
White [Gb] told the Rolling Stone why he used these [Em] particular colors.
They are the most powerful color combination of all time.
From a Coca-Cola can to a [Am] Nazi banner, those colors strike chords with people.
In Japan, they're honorable colors.
[Dm] When you see a bride in a white [C] gown, you immediately see innocence in that.
Red is anger and passion.
It's also [E] sexual, and black is the absence of all of that.
[Am] When the White Stripes broke up, Jack White [C] maintained this [Em] devotion to color, but with new schemes.
Striking [C] out solo, he adopted the color combination of blue and black.
This cooler, darker combination reflects shifts in his music, too.
Gone is the innocent minimalism for a darker, more cynical take on the world.
Like with the [Em] Stripes' colors, Jack White's solo [Am] colors are present in music videos, album artwork, promotional material, and even live performances. _
[C] According to the New York Times, White's solo backing band was allowed to wear anything they wanted on tour under one condition.
It had to be blue.
So, what's the point of all of this meticulous color coding, besides looking cool?
[C] White gave some insight into this in an [Am] interview with Dwell.
[C] I think that the newer [Ab] generation especially needs to [Am] see music.
They need to see it in front of them as well as hear it.
If my brothers hadn't put [Em] albums in front of me [E] when I was a kid, [Am] I wouldn't have known anything [C] about them.
_ Design gives fans another way to interact with music.
When there's striking visuals, [Am] you're more likely to pay attention to an artist, to really listen to them.
Humans are visual animals, and having this [C] visual can help draw out a different visceral reaction from an audience.
For me, it's nearly impossible to even listen to the White Stripes without thinking of thick bars of red, white, and black.
Even more than that, just playing the music over scenes with different color [Em] schemes can feel out of place and wrong.
Let's listen to Seven Nation Army.
[E] Feel the way that the minimal visuals match the [C] minimalism in the [B] song, while [E] the intense beat is matched with the [C] bright intensity [B] of the red [E] color.
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[C] Now let's try this again, [E] but changing that red into a blue.
It's still a striking visual, but it doesn't have [C] the same visceral impact for me.
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[C] Let's try the [Em] same experiment with one of his solo songs, [E] Love Interruption. _ _ _ _ _ _
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_ _ _ _ _ The cool blue matches [G] the calmer feel to this song, so what happens when we make [E] it a brighter, more intense red?
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It just doesn't fit in the same way.
You'd think these [Eb] schemes might get boring, but Jack White is always finding new ways to interpret the colors.
Look at Conquest, where the band uses the motif of red to conjure up images of matadors, matching the [Ab] feel of the music.
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_ [Ab] _ _ _ Now let's look [B] at Freedom at 21.
The power in this video comes from Jack White subverting his own color scheme with the bright green car.
When you're used to all of the blues and blacks, it [B] stands out like a punch in the [A] face.
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Jack White's relentless devotion to [C] color schemes has helped him stand out across his career,
and his willingness to experiment within these schemes has created new ways to experience [Am] his music.
For him, music is as much a form of visual [C] expression as it is an auditory expression.
Music is meant to be seen and felt in the same way that it's meant to be heard.
White's obsessive design gives us a new way to understand and appreciate his [C] sound,
and it helps cement his place as one of the most [G] important and [C] memorable acts of all time.
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