Nickelback Biography

Nickelback is a post-grunge rock band founded in western Canada in 1995. The name derived from the nickel in change Mike Kroeger frequently had to give customers back in his job at a Starbucks coffee shop.

The core of the band hails from Hanna, Alberta. They are now based in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Nickelback was helped early on by Cancon, the Canadian law requiring a certain percentage of music played on Canadian radio to be from Canadian musical artists. Their third album, The State, propelled them to the mainstream with two Top 10 hits (one being Leader of Men) and the follow up album Silver Side Up, with 2002's most-played single How You Remind Me, gave them superstar status, scoring multi-format smashes on every album since.
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Silver Side Up was released on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. On that morning, they were on their tour bus traveling across Pennsylvania less than 10 miles from where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed.

Nickelback's style is best described as hard rock; no electronic sounds or DJs guest-star in their songs. The frontman Chad Kroeger is the dominant element; his vocals sustain the songs through verse and hook. The result is radio friendly hard rock with no frills; save some dubbing in a few of their songs for dramatic effect ("Figured You Out").

As many bands, Nickelback's lyrics deal mostly with either acquirring romance, the loss of romance, or the transition between love and hate in relationships. Earlier albums included songs discussing problems many can relate to, such as parental desertion and domestic abuse. The context provided in Nickelbacks' songs also make it easy to create a mental picture of the subject matter; they seldom if ever speak metaphorically.

Their fifth album, "All the Right Reasons" (2005), sees a progression in their subject matter. Kroeger deals with nostalgia, friendships and the passage of time in one of the 2005 singles "Photograph". "Rockstar" has the band reflecting on the consequences of their new status as recognized musicians; something that is executed with solid ability and thought. The fact that Nickelback seldom touches on taboos in their lyrics (profane or otherwise) make their sound a viable option for rock, alternative, and mix stations. (source)

Nickelback are also heavily criticized as commercial sellouts by grunge fans because of their simple radio-friendly sound, which makes frequent use of digital post-processing. Many fans of Nickelback argue that it is tough to judge the band by their singles, as is the case with many mainstream bands.

Critics have often pointed out that "How You Remind Me", a Nickelback song that received extensive airplay in 2001 and 2002, and "Someday", a popular song in 2003, are almost identical except for lyrical content. A clever mash-up combined the two songs into a single track, "How You Remind Me of Someday", which has circulated the Internet for years on humor sites and music messageboards. The similarity of the two songs is only apparent, however, when several parts are edited out of both tracks and the tempo of Someday is elevated.

The band was booed offstage at a Portuguese heavy metal Music festival. Feeling they didn't fit with the genre of the other bands at the festival, Nickelback were reluctant to do the show; however, despite the predictable result, the money they were offered was so substantial that they couldn't turn it down. The audience voiced their distaste by throwing bottles and rocks at the stage. Chad Kroeger inquired to the hecklers, "Are there any Nickelback fans in Portugal?" The lackluster response led to him and Vikedal displaying a vulgar hand gesture and leaving the stage after only a few songs.(source)

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NICKELBACK BIOGRAPHY