[1][2][3] In 1998, the Strokes consisted of singer Julian Casablancas, guitarist Nick Valensi, bassist Nikolai Fraiture, and drummer Fabrizio Moretti.

Casablancas's stepfather and Moretti's and Fraiture's older brothers introduced the quartet to the music of reggae artist Bob Marley, protopunk group the Velvet Underground, and alternative rock band Jane's Addiction.

[4] With support from personal mentor JP Bowersock and producer Gordon Raphael, the band recorded three tracks which later appeared on Is This It: "The Modern Age", "Last Nite", and "Barely Legal".

British label Rough Trade Records was impressed by the songs and released them as a January 2001 extended play titled The Modern Age.

Music press reaction was very positive and the Strokes embarked on a sold-out UK tour, followed by US support slots for alternative rock groups Doves and Guided by Voices.

[6] Gentles quit his job to manage the band full-time and, in March 2001, the Strokes signed to RCA Records after a protracted bidding war.

Although the two parties developed a rapport, the band were unhappy with the results of preliminary sessions which they thought sounded "too clean" and "too pretentious"; the three songs recorded with Norton were scrapped.

"[4] Before recording started, the Strokes and Raphael organized a listening session with the musical material Hammond and Casablancas had brought to show the tone and energy they liked.

At one point, he had to cope with the threat of eviction from his Transporterraum studio, but once the Strokes received backing from RCA, time and money were no longer pressing concerns.

[10] While the rest of the Strokes played to a click track, Casablancas sang through a small Peavey practice amp to retain a sense of low fidelity on the album.

"[12] "Alone, Together" continues the sexual theme by dropping hints about cunnilingus,[14] while the yelp at the start of "New York City Cops" was created as a pastiche of rock band Aerosmith.

"[23] The result was included in the book The Greatest Album Covers of All Time, in which Grant Scott, one of the editors, noted influences from the works of Helmut Newton and Guy Bourdin.

[21] For the American market and the October 2001 release, the cover art of Is This It was changed to a psychedelic photograph of subatomic particle tracks in a bubble chamber.

[24] The Strokes' 2003 biography mentions the fear of objections from America's conservative retail industry and right-wing lobby as reasons for the artwork's alteration.

[29] Live recorded versions of "Hard to Explain", its B-side "New York City Cops", and "Last Nite" from The Modern Age aired on the UK music show Top of the Pops on July 6, 2001.

Geoff Travis, head of the Strokes' UK label Rough Trade, commented that the Australian continent had "special dispensation" and that an export ban was put in place to ensure no interferences with release plans in the rest of the world.

[50] Robert Christgau, writing in The Village Voice, described the Strokes as "a great groove band", and noted that "the beats implode, clashing/resolving with punky brevity and gnarly faux simplicity".

[44] Pitchfork's Ryan Schreiber suggested that, while the work of the Velvet Underground is an obvious inspiration for the Strokes, the band's only similarity to the other groups is the confidence with which they perform.

[61][62] The record featured at number two behind Bob Dylan's Love and Theft in The Village Voice's 2001 Pazz & Jop critics' poll, which aggregated the votes of 621 prominent reviewers.

[69] 20,000 copies were shipped in America per week from October 2001 to January 2002, when a performance by the Strokes on the nationwide TV show Saturday Night Live caused a temporary rise in sales.

[67][78] "Probably the most important rock album of the past 10 years: it prised the zeitgeist away from nu-metal, restored the pre-eminence of rattling neo-new-wave, and was the chief catalyzing influence on Arctic Monkeys.

[80] BBC Radio 1's Zane Lowe suggests that the album moved popular opinion from DJs and pop music to "skinny jeans and guitars", "the template for rock 'n' roll in the modern day".

[81] Tam Gunn of Fact agrees and explains that it "caused a sea change" in mainstream music in the US and the UK,[82] while Anthony Miccio of Stylus points out that the Strokes' success created the commercial context for "other new-wavers" to flourish.

[83] Rolling Stone writes that Is This It inspired "a ragged revolt" in Britain, led by the Libertines and Arctic Monkeys, and continued its influence in the US on the success of bands like Kings of Leon.

[84] The Observer shares a similar view and concludes that "a fine brood of heirs", like the Libertines and Franz Ferdinand, would not have existed and been successful if the Strokes had not reinvigorated "rock's obsession with having a good time".

[85] Jared Followill of Kings of Leon notes that the album was one of the main reasons that he wanted to get into a band; he states, "The title track was one of the first basslines I learned ...

[87] Gunn links the success of alternative music in British charts throughout the 2000s to the album, but notes that "the copyists" could never match the attention to detail and heartfelt emotion of the Strokes.

[82] Mulholland adds that even the pop stars of that decade who rediscovered disco, electro, and synthpop owe a debt to the record, because its commercial success "made every forgotten art-pop experiment of the late 70s and early 80s instantly hip and ripe for reinvention".

[80] Hamish MacBain of NME writes that "the western world has moved on, and is now swinging to the tune of Is This It",[88] while Pitchfork's Joe Colly suggests that "you only capture this kind of a lightning in a bottle once".

[94] In 2009, Is This It was ranked as the best record of the 2000s by NME, ahead of the Libertines' Up the Bracket,[95] and at number two by Rolling Stone, behind Radiohead's Kid A, in their respective lists decided by the publications' staff and music industry members.