Seven Nation Army

"Seven Nation Army" (also stylized as "7 Nation Army") is a song by American rock duo the White Stripes. It was released as the lead single from their fourth studio album, Elephant, in March 2003, and reached number one on the Alternative Songs chart for three weeks in a row. It won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Song.

Background
"Seven Nation Army" began with a guitar riff created by singer and guitarist Jack White at the Corner Hotel in Melbourne, while the White Stripes were on the Australian part of their tour in January 2002. He showed the riff to Ben Swank, an executive with the White Stripes' record label Third Man, who felt White could "do better". White later said that Swank "didn't even think that rhythm was that great, either". 17 minutes, 11 seconds in. 

White originally wanted to use the riff for a possible James Bond theme, however decided to use it into a White Stripes song after saying how slim his chances were of ever being asked to create a Bond theme. (Five years later, he would write and perform "Another Way to Die" with Alicia Keys as the theme for the 2008 Bond movie Quantum of Solace).

"Seven Nation Army" is seen as an alternative rock, garage rock, blues rock and punk blues. The song is three minutes and 52 seconds.

The title of the song comes from when Jack White, as a young child in Detroit, misheard "The Salvation Army" as "The Seven Nation Army".

Reception
The song became popular in multiple countries. Critics liked the song because of its distinctive riff and drumbeat and some have called the song one of the best songs of all time. and Pitchforks In 2021, Rolling Stone ranked "Seven Nation Army" 36th on its list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

Popularity
"Seven Nation Army" has become a sports anthem. Audience at these events tend to chant the song in which they yell "oh" sounds or the name of an athlete is sung to the tune of the song's riff. It has also has became a theme song for sports teams, personalities, and events, including the 2018 FIFA World Cup. 

Following a speech by Jeremy Corbyn at Wirral Live music festival in May 2017, supporters in the audience began to chant Corbyn's name to the tune of the song's riff. This was repeated on several times in the run-up to the 2017 UK general election, and afterwards at the 2017 Glastonbury Festival, where Corbyn appeared on the Pyramid stage.

References

Category:2003 songs
Category:Rock songs
Category:Grammy Award-winning songs
Category:The White Stripes songs
Category:The Flaming Lips songs