GFTO of here, I was a fan of Elephant/White Blood Cells but if Seven Nation Army didn't become a "sports anthem" they would have largely been forgotten. It would be like if Gary Glitter got in for Rock 'n' Roll (Part 2) ...before being exposed as as a creep.
How many artists from the past 30 years can you name that are greater than them? How many of those aren't already in, and of those, how many does nobody expect to make the cut?
I ask myself this question, and The Strokes are their immediate contemporary that comes to mind that I definitely think should make it first. Tool, Daft Punk, Smashing Pumpkins, Stone Temple Pilots, Alice in Chains, Coldplay.
Other than bands this big, who? There's a shitload of bands I could name, but I don't feel like they have such a clear claim over The White Stripes. Deftones, Gorillaz, System of a Down, Linkin Park, Cake, The Shins, Counting Crows, Live, Queens of the Stone Age, Kings of Leon, The Killers, The Black Keys, Jet, MGMT, Mumford and Sons, Arcade Fire, Arctic Monkeys, Basement Jaxx, LCD Soundsystem, Portishead, Bon Iver, Modest Mouse, Weezer, Sigur Ros, Muse, Vampire Weekend, Tame Impala, The Flaming Lips, The Mars Volta, Fugazi....on and on it goes.
Even stepping outside the above's sort of similar alt-rock focus, you have problematic artists like Lauryn Hill and Amy Winehouse because they created such a limited body of work even if it burned like Icarus.
