The Strokes formed at a young age, with most of the members connected in some way with lead singersongwriter Julian Casablancas. Bassist Nikolai Fraiture and Casablancas have been friends since childhood. Guitarist Nick Valensi and drummer Fabrizio Moretti started playing together while attending Manhattan's Dwight School. Later on, Casablancas was sent to Le Rosey, a boarding school in Switzerland. He was sent in order to straighten up his behavior, as it was said that he developed drinking problems at a young age. At Le Rosey, Casablancas became acquainted with Albert Hammond, Jr., since they were both Americans, although they were not particularly friends. It was years later, when Casablancas bumped into Hammond, Jr. on the street in New York. Incidentally, the two lived in apartments across the street from each other, as Hammond came to New York to attend New York University's (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. Albert and Julian began sharing an apartment together, and, in 1999, they became an official band. Their popularity increased quickly, especially on the Lower East Side of New York. They began to perform at Manhattan's ultra-hip Mercury Lounge, where Ryan Gentles was in charge of booking. Gentles was so impressed by the band that he quit his job in order to become their manager.

The Strokes begun rehearsing strongly for days, keeping their day jobs (Casablancas is said to be a former bartender, while Hammond worked at Kim's Video) and forming a 10 to 12 song set list which listed songs such as "Last Nite", "Modern Age", "This Life" (currently named "Trying Your Luck"), "New York City Cops", "Soma" and "Someday" among others. Most of these songs now feature different lyrics. During this time they had also discontinued several songs from their setlist, which includes "Sagganuts," "In Her Prime," "Rhythm Song", "A Minor 4-4", and three songs with unknown titles.

Gordon Raphael, a small time rock producer of New York's underground rock scene, attended one of the Strokes early concerts, having stated years later that he actually went to watch the other band that played that night. Raphael gave Albert his telephone number, saying he could record a demo for them. After calling him a couple of days later, the band and Raphael finally met.

(EP) was released in 2001 and sparked a bidding war among record labels, the largest for a rock and roll band in years. Subsequently, The Strokes became the subject of enormous hype, causing a great divide amongst rock fans, albeit mostly hipsters and independent magazines, as to whether they were the saviors of rock and roll or simply a bunch of rich kids with cool names ripping off the Velvet Underground. The two bands are very similar, for the vocal of changing who is playing lead guitar and rhythm guitar is close to that of Lou Reed and Sterling Morrison.

After the release of , the band toured exhaustively all around the world, featuring dates in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Canada and North America, staging for the Rolling Stones. The band headlined UK's Reading Festival in 2002. This tour was largely chronicled by a relatively hard-to-find mini-documentary entitled "In Transit," which was released to members of the now-defunct "Alone, Together" fan club. In August 2002, the band played at New York's Radio City Music Hall with the White Stripes as supporting act. In that gig, Jack White joined the Strokes on stage to perform the guitar solo in the song "New York City Cops". Julian performed while sitting on a chair as a result of an injury suffered in his knee. Fans later reported this was one of Casablancas's most boring performances due to this fact.

During that period, the band also appeared as musical guest on Saturday Night Live (performing Last Nite and Hard to Explain), Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien and David Letterman.

featured several singles as well as video clips, all of which were directed by the son of Francis Ford Coppola, Roman Coppola (who is also the brother of Sofia Coppola). Albert, during the live "Last Nite" video, can be seen accidentally stumbling into the drum's microphones. He then stops playing for a few seconds to redress the mic.

The group began recording their follow up in 2002 with producer Nigel Godrich (best known for his work with Radiohead), but later split with him in favor of Gordon Raphael, the producer of . Recordings with Godrich were never revealed.

In August 2003 the band toured Japan, playing a couple of the upcomings songs: "Reptilia", "Meet Me In The Bathroom", "The Way It Is", "Between Love Hate" (formerly known as "Ze Newie") and "12:51" (also called "Supernova"). The band also played Paul Anka's "My Way" with Japanese lyrics.

Their first single off was the song "12:51" which features keyboard-like sounds produced by Valensi's guitar. The video was also directed by Roman Coppola and is inspired by the futuristic look of .

In November of 2003, The Strokes performed each Tuesday night on the show "Late Night with Conan O'Brien". They performed the following songs: "Reptilia", "What Ever Happened", "The End Has No End" and "Under Control".

During the 2003 Tour", the band played with Kings of Leon as support act and Regina Spektor. While on tour, Spektor and the Strokes recorded the song "Modern Girls Old Fashioned Men", released as a b-side featured in the "Reptilia" Single. Also during the tour, the band included The Clash's "Clampdown" as a cover, having Julian presenting it to the crowds as "a Clash song, called 'Clampdown'". "Clampdown" was released as a b-side in the single "The End Has No End".

In early February 2005, Julian Casablancas wed longtime friend and assistant band manager, Juliet Joslin. Around this time, Nikolai Fraiture fathered a daughter.

The Strokes had a three concert South American tour in October 2005, featuring dates at Brazil, Chile and Argentina. They are also planning a 2006 United States and United Kingdom tour.

Their third album, , was released in January 2006 to mixed reviews and debuted at Number 4 in the US Album charts, and scored them their first UK Number 1 album. The Strokes revealed that in order to record their third album, they built their own studio in New York. When asked to comment on the third album, Julian said: "It's like a seedless watermelon. I like it." The band performed for the second time on Saturday Night Live on January 21, 2006. The Strokes played two songs: "Juicebox" and "You Only Live Once".

The second single of the record is the song "Heart In a Cage", a song which reminded some critics of "Passenger" by Iggy Pop. On February 27th, 2006, The Strokes performed on Letterman.