The "Rich Kids"

The Strokes first began to gain popularity in 2000. After their release of their first record Is This It their popularity skyrocketed and everyone knew about them. The Face published a statement that basically stated what The Strokes had accomplished, “The Strokes. Boys want to be them. Girls want to be with them.” For many people the band had become one of the most prominent and influential rock bands to emerge in the 21st century. Many believe that The Strokes achieved all their success because of who their parents where and the money they had. This is all wrong, they earned they popularity by working hard to get what they wanted.

Coming from New York and Los Angeles they started off with nothing and slowly rose to the top. They all came from very distinct backgrounds front man, Julian Casablancas son of John Casablancas founder of Elite Model Management and Jeanette Christiansen, a former model and Miss Denmark. Albert Hammond Jr. son of former model and beauty pageant winner Claudia Fernánde and singer/songwriter Albert Hammond. While the others Nick Valensi, Nikolai Fraiture and Fabrizio Moretti came from average families. Many argue that the band has bought their way to fame. They believe that because they were privileged they were able to make records and buy their way through critics and record labels.

In a recent blog Rich Russo stated that The Strokes are a waste of time. He said that “rich prep school kids, some with very influential daddies etc...They release it overseas and daddy’s friends in the fashion world start to manufacture some hype. That hype and maybe even some cash along the line gets the album released here. The album is mediocre but the “chip” cash in hype pulls out all of the stops and makes it a hit.” Russo strongly believes that they have bought their way through everything. He says that because of who their parents are they have hit records. Rich kids as most call them they are far from that. Even though Julian Casablancas' father is a very rich man he had nothing to do with the success of the band. His parents divorced when he was young so he never really knew his father and hardly talked to him. He live with his mother and his stepfather. Albert Hammond only helped his son and the band pay apartment rent and nothing else. Nick V. and Nikolai F. lived in poverty for the most part. As did Fabrizio Moretti. “It isn’t too true that whole thing about us being privileged kids” says Moretti in an interview “Nick, Nikolai and I, we all had to work for our spending cash.” So they were at no means privileged and rich.

They played their first gig in front of 15 girls at a party thrown by Nick’s older sister in 1996. They would play at venues where only 10 people would show up. They would make fliers to get people to come to their shows but not many would show up. Then their hype started spreading. Word of Mouth came into play people would tell their friends about this really cool band they had seen and soon more and more people would show up at the gigs. In 2000 they met their manager Ryan Gentles, who helped them book gigs and began sending out their demo to record companies. Rough Trade in England got a hold of it and decided to sign them. During this time the members still had regular jobs, Casablancas was bar-tending The Lemon on Park Avenue, Hammond was a shop assistant at Kim's Underground record store. Nikolai worked in a video rental store, Nick was a waiter and Fab worked at the State University Of New York. Nick Valensi stated in an interview “To be honest, none of us had money. No one helped us financially. Maybe in the beginning, Albert’s parents helped us to pay the rent. But that’s all.” The band has been trying so hard to show that all they have now is something they've worked hard for and not something that was bought by their parents.

Many refuse to believe that The Strokes are a band who has worked hard and want to make them seem like this band that is all magazine and money. When asked about the rumors that were being said about them Moretti said “rich boys trying to steal the spotlight from someone else. When you try a hard as you can to just be yourself and make music, people like to start making things up.” They have all worked hard for what they have accomplished being labeled as ‘rock’n’roll savors’, this does not come from money and having famous fathers. This comes from being a hard working band who love music. Their parents had nothing to do with their success. It's something they earned on their own.