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" It may not be the most scandalous storyline of tonight&amp;#039;s Grammys \u2014 Will Frank Ocean mention Chris Brown? Will Justin Bieber keep bitching about going un-nominated? Will &amp;quot;Suit &amp;amp;amp; Tie&amp;quot; not suck live? \u2014 but Jack White vs. the Black Keys might be the most significant. The two face off in three categories, including Best Album, and the matchup says much about the present state and future of modern rock &amp;#039;n&amp;#039; roll. The Keys have been associated with White and the White Stripes ever since their 2002 debut, The Big Come Up. In seemingly every article about the favorite sons of Akron, Ohio \u2014 a title they&amp;#039;ve held outright ever since LeBron James dumped northeastern Ohio on national TV \u2014 there&amp;#039;s been mention of Detroit&amp;#039;s guitar demigod. The UK newspaper The Telegraph before the Keys&amp;#039; December tour of England: &amp;quot;El Camino [the Keys&amp;#039; 2011 album] finally drove the Black Keys out of Jack White&amp;#039;s slipstream.&amp;quot; And here, days later, a review of the London finale in the Financial Times: &amp;quot;Comparisons are routinely made with the White Stripes, but it&amp;#039;s true: The Black Keys&amp;#039; diligence pales beside Jack White&amp;#039;s showmanship.&amp;quot;  The parallels are certainly striking, if superficial: two blues-influenced guitar-and-drum duos from economically-ravaged Rust Belt cities with colors in their names. The Keys didn&amp;#039;t help deflect the comparison when they relocated to Nashville in 2010, just four years after White. And the parity has only increased since: Both White and Keys singer-guitarist Dan Auerbach have produced terrific albums by languishing legends; both acts have licensed their music a shitload and stayed vigilant against those who use it without permission; both have showed a knack for comedy, penned movie themes, appeared on reality TV, undertaken unique collaborations, and allied with Danger Mouse, who produced the Keys&amp;#039; last three albums and enlisted White on his 2011 spaghetti western homage Rome. Both Jack White and the Black Keys are also insane live. One need only look at the Keys playing &amp;quot;I Got Mine&amp;quot; at Coachella in 2011 to dismiss the Financial Times&amp;#039;s assertion that they lack showmanship. About the Keys&amp;#039; diligence, however, they&amp;#039;re dead right, and it&amp;#039;s here where the two acts, and where rock has been and where it&amp;#039;s going, really diverge. The Keys are consummate professionals, the &amp;quot;Energizer bunnies of rock and roll,&amp;quot; as Los Angeles radio station KROQ recently dubbed them, on account of their non-stop touring and recording schedule. Reportedly, the band is already back in the studio working on its next album, due out later this year.  Late last September, Jack White played Radio City Music Hall in support of Blunderbuss, his first solo album since the Stripes disbanded in 2011. After just 50 minutes and 12 songs, he quit the stage. Afterward, there was much speculation in the press about why. He thought the sellout crowd lacked enthusiasm. He was being heckled by someone in the front row. He was unhappy with the sound. White never explained. Nor did he apologize.  The incident would hardly be worth comment \u2014 one more enigmatic move from an artist who has made a career of them \u2014 but for what was taking place that same Saturday night twenty-odd blocks to the north. In Central Park&amp;#039;s Great Lawn, 60,000-plus turned out for the Global Citizen Festival, a free concert celebrating activism. Performers included Neil Young with Crazy Horse, Foo Fighters, and John Legend. And the Black Keys. Rock stars are expected to be assholes. As punk godfather Richard Hell once wrote, &amp;quot;[F]ront men have to be difficult, egotistical people... When a person needs to have that power \u2014 godlike power enabling him to confer a feeling of immortality to his audience \u2014 to perform well, needs to have that absolute self-assurance that is required to satisfy audiences ravenous for the thrill of its reflection in themselves, that driven self-certainty will make him a creep.&amp;quot; These days, though, rock is full of nothing but decent dudes: Dave Grohl, Chris Martin, Win Butler, Matt Berninger. And when they do act up \u2014 like Billy Joe Armstrong did in his Las Vegas tirade last fall \u2014 drugs or booze are blamed and a mea culpa is quickly issued and it&amp;#039;s off to rehab. The Black Keys, too: You don&amp;#039;t get on grandparent-approved CBS Sunday Morning if you&amp;#039;re a dick. Any occasional petulance they&amp;#039;ve shown \u2014 smack-talking Spotify and Van Halen \u2014 has been justified. (Slamming Nickelback was a little unnecessary, but they apologized... sort of.) At last year&amp;#039;s Grammy&amp;#039;s, they picked up their Best Alternative Album award at the bizarro pre-telecast ceremony in person, surprising even the presenter. It&amp;#039;s unthinkable that the Keys would throw a tantrum and end a show halfway through. You could argue that modern rock&amp;#039;s trend toward even-keeled reliability, as personified by the Keys, is a bad thing, perhaps even the reason the genre has been dwarfed by pop and hip-hop. Hell again: &amp;quot;Part of the job description of the front person is to be godlike for teenagers... And teenagers need to swagger and be sarcastic and furious because they have so little power (or self-assurance either).&amp;quot; Whatever the artistic merits of Frank Ocean, Kendrick Lamar, Rihanna, Taylor Swift, and the Bieb, their drama and cattiness and parking lot brawls are way more relatable to hormonal high schoolers than judging TV cooking competitions. You might say modern rock needs more impulsiveness, more villainy. It needs more Jack White. And here&amp;#039;s where we return to tonight&amp;#039;s Grammys, where it&amp;#039;s unlikely that either Jack White or the Black Keys will claim Best Album. Most bets are on Frank Ocean and his deserving Channel Orange. As for the two other categories White and the Keys are competing each other in, Best Rock Song and Best Rock Album, the outcome could prove paradoxical: If the good guys win, does modern rock lose? Follow The Culture Blog on RSS and on Twitter at @ESQCulture. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/music/a19287/jack-white-vs-black-keys-grammys-15085314/>