The Strokes

The Strokes resolved to do something their contemporaries were not doing in 2001: they dressed up, played short songs, and released an album that sounded like it had been made in 1977 by people who had just discovered that 1977 was available. Is This It (2001) was received as the arrival of something important partly because of its timing — the slick pop of the late nineties was exhausted, and here was something that sounded careless in a studied way — and partly because the songs were genuinely good. Julian Casablancas's baritone, the two-guitar interplay of Nick Valensi and Albert Hammond Jr., the dry production: it all held together.

The debut's influence on indie rock across the subsequent decade was enormous — the template of the distorted guitar band playing short, direct songs with a retro tinge is now so common as to be invisible. Room on Fire (2003) maintained the quality; later albums varied. What's clear in retrospect is that the Strokes made one essential record and a handful of good ones, which is more than most bands manage.