Nickelback

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This article is about the Canadian rock band. For the American football position, see Nickelback (American football).

Nickelback
Nickelback live on stage, 2006
Background information
Origin	Hanna, Alberta, Canada
Genres	Alternative rock, post-grunge,[1] hard rock,[1] alternative metal[1]
Years active	1995–present
Labels	Roadrunner, Atlantic, EMI (Canada),LiveNation
Website	nickelback.com
Members
Chad Kroeger Ryan Peake Mike Kroeger Daniel Adair
Past members
Ryan Vikedal Brandon Kroeger Mitch Guindon

Nickelback is a Canadian rock band from Hanna, Alberta, formed in 1995 by Chad Kroeger, Mike Kroeger, Ryan Peake and then-drummer Brandon Kroeger. While largely a rock band, the group has also experimented with various other musical styles such as popand country, aside from their hard rock and post-grunge base. Nickelback is one of the most commercially successful Canadian groups, having sold over 35 million albums worldwide.^[2] Nickelback ranks as the 11th best selling music act of the 2000s, and is the 2nd best selling foreign act in the U.S. behind The Beatles for the 2000s.^[3] In December 2009, Nickelback were ranked 7th on Billboard Magazine's list of "Artists of the Decade" - both the highest-ranked band and the highest-ranked rock artist in the list.^[4] Billboard Magazine also named Nickelback as the Adult Pop Artist of the decade.^[5] The band has sold 21,000,000 album copies in the U.S.^[6]The band is based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Its name originates from the nickel in change that band member Mike Kroeger gave customers at his job at Starbucks; he would frequently say, "Here's your nickel back."^[7]The band is signed to EMI in Canada and Roadrunner Records for the rest of the world. In July 2008, the band signed with Live Nation for three touring and album cycles, with an option for a fourth. The contract includes recordings, touring, merchandise and other rights.^[8]

Contents  [show]

History

Formative years (1995-1999)

Nickelback was formed in 1995 by members Chad Kroeger, Ryan Peake, Mike Kroeger, and Brandon Kroeger. Nickelback's first release was a seven-track EP called Hesher in 1996.^[9] In the same year, Nickelback also recorded their first full-length album Curb. "Fly" was included on both Hesher and Curb and was the first single produced by Nickelback. On 1997, Brandon Kroeger left the band and Nickelback searches for a new drummer. In later 1997, Mitch Guindon join the band, but he decided to leave in 1998 because he started working in a Car Company. In Summer 1998, Ryan Vikedal joined the band. Roadrunner A&R Ron Burman told HitQuarters that one of his West Coast scouts sent him the self-released album and, suitably impressed, he travelled to Vancouver to see them perform live. Although an unknown property in the industry at the time, the venue was packed out. In Burman's words: "I immediately got the chills! I thought their song "Leader of Men" was a smash hit."^[10] Off the stage he was impressed by their industry and initiative in managing their career: Despite this it still took Burman three months for him to convince his label bosses' to approve the signing, a decision that would mark Roadrunner's first move into mainstream rock.^[10] Nickelback signed a record deal with EMI and Roadrunner Records. In 1999, Roadrunner Records signed Nickelback because the band sold more than 10,000 copies of Hesher and their first album Curb as an independent label.

Early releases (2000-2002)

The State, was released by Nickelback in 2000 by Roadrunner Records and EMI. The State, was Released in Europe in 2001. It spawned 4 singles from the album, Old Enough, Worthy To Say, and the smash hits "Leader of Men" and "Breathe" which were Top 10 rock hits and resulted in the album being certificated gold in the United States in late 2001. It reached Platinum status in 2008, after the succes of three consecutive multi-platinum efforts.^[11] Nickelback toured with other bands such as Creed, SevenDust, and 3 Doors Down in their, State tour. Nickelback won a Juno Award in 2001, for best new group. The State has sold over 1 million copies worldwide. The album entered the Billboard 200 albums charts in position #130, it also entered the Billboard Top Heatseekers albums charts in position #3 in 2000.

In 2001, Nickelback released the Silver Side Up album. The single "How You Remind Me" was a #1 single on the Mainstream and Modern rock charts, as well as the pop chart. It also peaked at #2 on Adult Top 40. "How You Remind Me" became the Billboard Hot 100 #1 single of the year for 2001. The next single was "Too Bad", which also reached #1 on the Mainstream Rock Chart and had a small amount of success on the pop chart. The final single from the album was "Never Again", another #1 hit on Mainstream Rock.

In 2002, Chad Kroeger collaborated with Josey Scott and Gaige Corvo who played the lead guitar on the Spider-Man theme song, "Hero". This also featured Tyler Connolly, Mike Kroeger, Matt Cameron, and Jeremy Taggart. In 2002, Nickelback released their first DVD which was Live at Home. In 2002, Nickelback re-released it's first album Curb, with RoadRunner Records. Silver Side Up has sold over 10 million copies worldwide.

Mainstream success (2003-2007)

In 2003, Nickelback released The Long Road. It spawned five singles, which were Someday, Figured You Out, See You at the Show, Feelin' Way Too Damn Good, and Because of You. The lead single was "Someday" and the album went on to sell five million copies worldwide.^[12]The band also released "Feelin' Way Too Damn Good" as a single, which peaked at #3 on the Mainstream Rock Charts. "Figured You Out" was also released as a single and topped the Mainstream Rock Charts for 13 consecutive weeks.

Nickelback's fifth studio album, All the Right Reasons, produced five U.S. Hot 100 top 20 singles: "Photograph", "Savin' Me", "Far Away", "If Everyone Cared" and "Rockstar". Three of these became U.S. Hot 100 top 10 singles. All the Right Reasons had sold 7,357,944 copies in the US to June 19, 2010.^[13] In total, All the Right Reasons has sold more than 11 million copies worldwide since its 2005 release. Aside from all the success of All the Right Reasons, lead singer Kroeger began his own label named 604 Records in 2005 and holds the position of executive producer. In early 2005, Ryan Videdal left the band and 3 Doors Down's drummer Daniel Adair joined Nickelback. The group was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in 2007.

Recent years (2008-present)

On September 4, 2008, Roadrunner Records announced that the first single from the upcoming album was going to be "If Today Was Your Last Day", to be released on September 30, 2008. However, the song was replaced by "Gotta Be Somebody".^[14] The new album, titled Dark Horse, was released on November 18, 2008. The album was produced by Mutt Lange.^[15] "Something in Your Mouth" was released as the second single to rock radio only on December 15, where it reached #1. "If Today Was Your Last Day" was released as the third single. Four more singles have been released, "I'd Come for You", "Burn It to the Ground" (which would become the theme for WWE RAW) and "Never Gonna Be Alone" released in September and "Shakin' Hands" as the seventh single on November 16.^[16] Its eighth single, "This Afternoon", was released on March 23, 2010. On February 28, 2010, Nickelback gave a performance at the beginning of the concert portion of the 2010 Winter Olympics closing ceremony, performing "Burn It to the Ground". On October 2010 Nickelback finished their Dark Horse Tour.^[17]

Chad Kroeger said in an interview with Billboard.com in September 2010 that songwriting for the next Nickelback album was planned to commence as early as February 2011 with "about four tunes" already in mind.^[18]Also, Adair mentioned that the band wanted to go back to the musical style that All The Right Reasons had, which he described as "more organic."^[19]

Discography

Main article: Nickelback discography

• Curb (1996)
• The State (2000)
• Silver Side Up (2001)
• The Long Road (2003)
• All the Right Reasons (2005)
• Dark Horse (2008)

Band members

Current members

• Chad Kroeger – lead vocals, lead and rhythm guitar (1995–present)
• Ryan Peake – rhythm and lead guitar, backing vocals (1995–present)
• Mike Kroeger – bass (1995–present)
• Daniel Adair – drums, backing vocals (2005–present)

Former members

• Brandon Kroeger – drums (1995–1997)
• Mitch Guindon – drums (1997)
• Ryan Vikedal – drums (1997–2005)

Critical reception

At various points in their career, Nickelback has received widespread negative reviews from various sources. Review aggregator Metacriticreports that three of their six most recent studio albums since becoming a mainstream act, The Long Road, All the Right Reasons and Dark Horse, have scores of 62%, 41% and 49% respectively.^[20][21][22] Criticism tends to focus on the band's themes of "strippers, sex, prostitutes, drugs, sex, drinking and sex",^[23] for being derivative in the music they create, as well as too often sticking to formula instead of innovating.^[24]

Despite a barrage of criticism, Nickelback has still managed to please some reviewers with each of their mainstream albums. Allmusic reviewer Liana Jones complimented Nickelback after their commercial breakthrough, Silver Side Up; "what gives the group an upper hand over its peers is intensity and raw passion... Nickelback ups the ante by offering realistic storytelling that listeners can relate to."^[25] Following their 2008 album, Dark Horse, ChartAttack credited the band's success to knowing their target audience: "Chad Kroeger is a genius because he knows exactly what people want and precisely how far he can go. He turned out an extremely racy album that's loaded with songs about gettin' drunk and doin' it all without breaking any taboos, and with enough love and moral authority to grease its passage into the mainstream. Rejoice, North America. This is your world."^[26] Billboard gave praise to the band: "The bulletproof Nickelback provides affordable fun that promises good returns in hard times."^[27] Also various fellow musicians like Chris Martin of Coldplay^[28] as well as R&B singer Timbaland^[29]support the band.