The Aging Enigma of Jack White and His Phone-Free Shows
It seems that at every music concert now, the audience is illuminated by a sea of raised smartphones, constantly Snapchat and camera ready. Life is increasingly experienced behind a screen. Jack White, former pale half to the White Stripes, has recently decided to reclaim the human experience and ban all cell phones at his upcoming shows.
Jack White’s 2018 domestic tour was announced in conjunction with the release of his third single album, Boarding House Reach. He is the first artist to ever hold an explicitly “phone-free” show.
According to a pre-tour statement, White hopes that by holding a phone-free concert he can better provide a “100 percent human experience” to his fans.
Anyone seeking a Jack White ticket will be confronted with the line “We think you’ll enjoy looking up from your gadgets & experience music and our shared love of it IN PERSON,” after their purchase.
But how will he implement this you ask? Will he take them away? Will he have faith that a verbal direction is enough to keep people away from their Snapchat and Instagram?
Apparently not. He has teamed up with the San Fransisco based tech start-up Yondr, a company that produces sealed pouches for your smartphone. A latch that can only be undone by a special Yondr tool ensures that no one can sneak just a quick little photo.
His phone-free tour has been met with mixed perceptions. Some see it as a radical way to reclaim the authenticity of collective, musical experiences. According to Corbin Reiff, a writer for the online publication Uproxx who attended White’s performance in Milwaukee, White’s phone-free show is a “refreshing step out of the 21st century.”
However, some see it as another tired attempt by an old has-been to educate the youth and to scold them on their reliance to technology. There’s just something fundamentally irksome about yet another middle aged man preaching technology as the downfall of society (fun fact: Jack White almost became a priest).
In an interview with Metallica’s Lars Ulrich, White reasoned that he develops his setlists organically and heavily depends on the crowd’s reactions to determine what to play next. However, he was finding that cell phones were making it harder for his fans to engage with his music. Although the infiniteness of the internet is a hard thing to compete with, the argument can be made that live art should earn your attention, not direct it.
Third Man Records, White’s Detroit-based record label, posted a newsletter on their website a while back titled “Flip Phone Friday Sale” in which anyone who brought in their old school flip phone to the shop would get discounted merchandise. This newsletter perfectly encapsulates White’s preoccupation with being “unplugged.” However, at what point does this stop being cool and authentic and start being both inconvenient and pretentious?
Regardless of how you feel about White’s decision, the concept of a phone free concert has interesting implications for how we value technology’s role in the musical experience. Technology always seems to bring with it a crisis of authenticity, in which some feel inclined to question the musical legitimacy of sound created with buttons and nobs rather than traditional instruments.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Jack White critiqued famous producer DJ Khaled on his role in creating the Rihanna hit “Wild Thoughts,” stating that he was confused as to what value he added to the song.
Jack White made his career on selling raw, stripped-down electric guitar riffs and snarky lyrics during the height of the White Stripes. White’s music intrinsically relies on the specific sound of the guitar and drums to build up its vocal narrative. So it follows that White probably isn’t a fan of DJ Khaled’s sound and brand, which is to create a background beat that compliments celebrity vocalists.
However, White doesn’t just criticize DJ Khaled’s sound. He directly attacks the work and validity of all DJ’s and producers. As a musician who pioneered a radical new wave of music, his unwillingness to respect different and newer forms of music comes off as more ignorant than refreshing. Also, taking into account White’s heavy reliance on synthesizers, effects pedals, and loopers in much of his solo work, his criticism of people like DJ Khaled feels misguided and hypocritical.
And on the other end, how does technology affect the consumption of music? How does the mere possession of a smartphone, used to record and connect, affect a musical experience? Jack White would probably immediately say that it inherently prevents people from truly connecting to the music, the performer, and the rest of the audience.
But Jack White ignores one of the fundamental functions of phones and technology: the ability to share experiences and record memories. Everyone has probably felt the extreme annoyance of having your view of the stage obstructed by someone’s phone recording the show. However, those videos and photographs can also clearly bring people back to an experience in a way that a memory sometimes can’t.
Of course, anything in excess can become a bad thing. However, it should be the responsibility of the performer to pull the audience’s eyes away from their phones and towards the stage. If the majority of the crowd watches a show through a screen, is their inattention indicative of a brainwashed society or just a bad entertainer?
Ultimately, White’s phone-free shows seem to indicate a lack of trust and respect for his fans. His ban feels less like an attempt to give people a more authentic experience and more like a scolding. Should it be up to the artist or the fan on how art should be consumed?
These questions continue to plague the American conversation on music. Although Jack White dominated America’s hearts and souls at the turn of the century, it feels as if his grip on what was most appealing about his music and brand is faltering.
As a diehard Jack White fan, who has already bought tickets for his upcoming show in Cooperstown, New York, my feelings also remain mixed.
Although it may be hard to acknowledge that an artist who created such eclectic and ingenious single albums like Lazaretto and Blunderbuss has lost what made him such an inspiring musician.
In 2010, White gave an interview with NPR’s All Things Considered in which he assured his listeners that his sound and his techniques weren’t just “retro romantic” odes to the past. However, his “100% human experience” shows and flip-phone shoutouts beg the question “Are you sure, Jack?”
