The Black Keys — Akron, Ohio

The Black Keys — Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney — formed in Akron, Ohio, in 2001, recording their first albums in Carney's basement with minimal equipment and maximal commitment to the raw, bluesy two-piece guitar-and-drums format they had developed. Akron — the post-industrial Rubber City of northeast Ohio, once the world's tyre manufacturing capital and by the 2000s a city in economic decline — contributed an atmosphere of grit and stripped-back necessity to their approach. They were also following in distinguished Akron footsteps: Devo had formed there in the early 1970s.

The Black Keys spent several years building a following on the independent circuit, releasing albums on Fat Possum Records that demonstrated their instinct for blues-rooted songwriting and their ability to generate a surprisingly full sound from two people. Commercial breakthrough came with "Brothers" (2010) and "El Camino" (2011), which brought them Grammy Awards and mainstream radio presence without fundamentally altering their approach. Their decision to record several albums entirely in Memphis — including at Electra Studios — reflected a deep engagement with the blues tradition that underpinned their work.

Akron has claimed the Black Keys as local heroes alongside Devo, Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders (also an Akron native), and the legacy of the city's rubber industry blues. The basement where the band first recorded is in a private residential property. Auerbach has since established Easy Eye Sound studio in Nashville, where he has recorded as a producer and solo artist, while maintaining the blues-informed approach that defined the Black Keys from their Akron beginnings.