Nickelback Research & Star Construction (with Links to our band "Distraction")

Nickelback is a canadian rock band from the US, formed in 1995 by Chad Kroeger, Mike Kroeger, Ryan Peake & drummer - Brandon Kroeger. The rock band are mostly involved with Hard Rock and Post-Grunge base however the band has also experimented with other genres such as Pop and Country music. The band has sold over 21,000,000 album copies in the US to date.
The band is based in Vancouver, Canada and the name originates from a time when band member: Mike Kroeger used to be employed at Starbucks and give change in "nickels" to customers. The band is signed to EMI 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; their contract includes recordings, touring, merchandise and other rights.
Their first single in 2001 "How You Remind Me" was a huge success and automatically catapulted them into the mainstream rock genre.
For full information on the bands history including some of my own sources, follow the link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickelback

I believe that this band share alot in common with the potential rock band that me and my team are working with in college and will be working with throught the course of our media project. Nickelback does not have as many band members as Distraction does, willing to share the instruments and vocal work due to mixed skills and abilitys. Nickelback are far more professional and assign one person to each area of a performance i.e. if the lead singer of Nickelback were to switch with another member; the music would be unrecognisable to larger audiences which Distraction do not have. Distraction are not as creative as Nickelback but are creative in a sense by doing a cover song but performing it in another genre style. Distraction could potentially come to present the same image as Nickelback has been recognised to do so by critics; Critisism tends to focus on the bands themes of Strippers, Sex, Prostitutes, Drug, Sex, Drinking and Sex.
Obviously Distraction will not have as much hyped up Marketing or Publicity as Nickelback does, but they still try to market themselves in their own low-budget way e.g. several live performances at a public house located in town centre a year. CDs are able to be recorded, designed and published through the Myspace website. Nickelback have a worldwide advertising campaign but keep to the image it shares with Distraction. Nickelback; band members dress like a modern rock group and never seem to make any references to classic rock, 90s punk in the way they are presented in their live performances and music videos. The hair styles seem pretty normal with minor visibal piercing and tattoo art. This relates alot to the way the band members are presented in Distraction. Here are 2 examples of nickelbacks pop promos which is a taste of the image that they present and stand for:

"How You Remind Me" by Nickelback

"Far Away" by Nickelback (shows a romantic side to the moody band) here is the link, embedding was disabled for this particular music video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4y-RzVGrHg

Nickelback Star Construction:

When they started out (around the year 2000); Nickelback seemed like the average young, new rock band on the scene with a hint of their own style and their own vocals to add to the rock culture. their appearence seemed like all-canadian with the certain brands of t-shirts that are available in their region which was their image at the time and it was how they wanted to be represented before altering it to fit into the larger scene in american rock culture. Back then their music seemed more softer and with more heart and feelings toward the storyline that included the romance narrative and precious memories (Far Away, Photograph) Their CD covers and print adverts were bright and cool but didnt really offer anything different to rock fans out there.

Since around 2006 Nickelback has grown more darker and destitute through their music which has changed their image making it more intense through extreme use of loud instruments with cranked up volume and voltage making it painful to listen to but in a good way. Their clothing has changed to jet black to express the dark and moody feelings they are trying to present to their wider targeted audience; they could possibly be targeting fans of gothic music in order to expand their fan clubs and audiences, sometimes they have shocks of white and red in their costumes to represent Light, Danger etc. Their CD covers seem to involve perculier symbols with pitch-black surroundings (Dark Horse album cover) rather than a picture of the band itself which would have changed since 6 years ago. Their music mood is now so different that one of their new songs "Burn it to the Ground" has been chosen to introduce WWE Wrestling due to it being so intense with action-packed feel to it.