Feed the Machine Has Nickelback’s Lowest First-Week Sales in Sixteen Years
As it turns out, there may actually be such a thing as bad publicity.
People have loathed Nickelback for years, but the past three years seem to have been especially rough on the band. To review, here’s a list of all the prominent groups and individuals who expressed hatred from Nickelback between 2014 and last week:
- Police in Idaho
- Police in Canada
- Saturday Night Live
- The GOP
- Mark Zuckerberg and Morgan Freeman
- This dude who raised money for charity by listening to the band for 168 hours straight.
- Donald Trump
- Arnold Schwarzenegger
And, of course, there was last week’s drama between Chad Kroeger and Stone Sour, which probably worked out better for Stone Sour than it did for Kroeger.
All of which is kind of amazing. Society has become so divided these days, the fact that Donald Trump and Arnold Schwarzenegger can agree on anything seems like a minor miracle.
But other than hurting Kroeger’s self-esteem, could all of this negative attention really have any impact on Nickelback? Well, actually, yes: the band’s new album, Feed the Machine, sold 47,000 units in its first week of release, which sounds like a good, solid number, except compared to Nickelback’s other releases since they broke through with 2001’s Silver Side Up, it’s practically bupkis.
- The Long Road (2003) – 200,184 units
- All the Right Reasons (2005) – 323,350 units
- Dark Horse (2008) – 326,000 units
- Here and Now (2011) – 227,000 units
- No Fixed Address (2014) – 80,000 units
That means Feed the Machine sold 42% fewer copies in its first of week release than No Fixed Address did… and that’s after No Fixed Address sold 65% fewer copies in its first week than Here and Now did. So, again: impressive by most standards, embarrassing by Nickelback standards.
So does this mean the end of Nickelback? Don’t be daft — of course it doesn’t.
Does this mean the beginning of the end of Nickelback? Well… we can hope, can’t we?
[via Rock Feed]
