Nickelback's riding high

Music journalists criticize the group's songs as unoriginal or Creed-like.
By NEKESA MUMBI MOODY
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK -- With the recording industry in a slump, bands can no longer expect blockbuster sales -- except for Nickelback. Past multiplatinum albums are no guarantee of future success either -- unless you're Nickelback. Concert sellouts aren't guaranteed -- but that doesn't apply to Nickelback.
It's been almost 18 months since the release of "All the Right Reasons," which has sold more than 5 million copies on the strength of hits such as the ubiquitous "Photograph." The Canadian band's tour is selling out arenas nationwide. All this followed up the triple-platinum "The Long Road" in 2003. And still, the commercial powerhouse shows no sign of slowing.
Nickelback has also recently branched out to the arena of benevolence. Digital sales from their latest hit, the activist anthem "If Everyone Cared," are being donated to Amnesty International and International Children's Awareness Canada.
"In a climate that a lot of people aren't doing that well, we're very, very fortunate," Nickelback's leader, vocalist Chad Kroeger, said in a recent phone interview.
"We're just lucky that we've been able to make a connection to fans of all ages, instead of just hitting with one group of fans or one age group," he added. "Our fans are really over the map, and that makes it really easy when we pull into town to draw a large variety of people who want to sit and listen to Nickelback songs."
What music critics say
Not everybody wants to sit and listen to Nickelback -- mainly, most critics. Ever since the release of 2001's six-times platinum "Silver Side Up," they've gotten routine drubbings from music journalists and others who deride their radio-friendly, soaring rock songs as unoriginal, insipid or, perhaps worst of all, Creed-like.
But it's easy for Kroeger to tune talk like that out -- especially with thousands of fans screaming in his ear every night.
"We don't listen to critics anymore. I don't think we've ever listened to critics, but we don't even pay attention to it anymore," Kroeger, 32, said.
The gruff-voiced, curly haired Kroeger, who is also the group's lyricist, has tuned out the doubters before -- especially when it came time to release "All the Right Reasons," as industry insiders told them they'd never repeat the success they had with "Silver Side Up" or even "The Long Road."
"Usually, if [bands] do what Nickelback has done, you watch it decline. You always watch, they come out and they'll have some success early on and it always seems to trickle off, it never seems to gain momentum," he said.
Kroeger's devotion to detail in his songwriting is one reason why the band has had such success, says hit songwriter Kara DioGuardi, who recently worked with him for another project.
"He'll write it, and then he'll go back and say, 'The chorus isn't right, the verse isn't right.' He spends weeks perfecting each song, making it the absolute best it can be," she said. "Great melodies, great lyrics and a great band makes for a winning combination."
Kroeger says the band worked particularly hard on the latest record -- seven months -- and always tries to cast a wide net in terms of the songs' appeal so they can have the broadest audience possible. It's not something a lot of acts like to admit -- a yearning for mass success -- but Kroeger scoffs at the notion that bands shouldn't want mainstream appeal.
"I really don't understand that. I've never understood that. Criticism of people who want as many people as possible on the planet to sing along to their songs," he said, laughing. "Sounds ridiculous to me."
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