9 gifts Canada has given the world

Canada's gift to the world: Nickelback

Say what? I know, I know--but stay with me. Think of the Canadian greats… Rush, Tragically Hip, Neil Young, put them together and they couldn’t touch the numbers of these guys. 50 million albums sold, four albums in Billboard’s top 10 for the 2000s, Billboard’s Rock Group of the Decade, winners of the Rock Song of the Decade, 28 Juno nominations, the honours go on and on.

Why Canadians should be proud: We could say something snarky about their start as a cover band called “Village Idiots”, or music about lead singer Chad Kroeger celebrating their success by speeding drunk through the suburbs of Vancouver in his $175,000 Lamborghini, but let’s look at this from a business perspective. Nickelback took a tired and derivative rock and roll formula into an intensely crowded market and came out on top.