Rockstar (Nickelback song)

"Rockstar"
Song

"Rockstar" is the fifth U.S. single (although later re-released) by the Canadian rock band Nickelback from their 2005 fifth studio album All the Right Reasons. It was only released in the U.S. and Canada, and has since been re-released worldwide. Spoken-word vocals between each verse are provided by Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top.

Release and re-release

During the song's original release "Far Away" was more successful on the U.S. Hot 100 and U.S. Pop charts, while "Rockstar" instead found moderate success on the rock charts. It peaked at #4 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, and #37 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart. It entered the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #54, during its original run. Because the song was released so close together with "Far Away" the band opted to shoot a video for "Far Away" and a video for "Rockstar" was not originally made.

The song was re-shipped to radio for ads on 5 June 2007, and a video was made to accompany the re-release. Since its re-release, the song has experienced great mainstream success, and has become active on most charts again, reaching new peaks on numerous charts like The Hot 100, the Adult Top 40, and Pop 100. It has also registered on charts it didn't the first time, such as the Pop 100 Airplay. The song climbed as high as #3 on iTunes top 100 selling songs as well as #1 on the chart of the most downloaded music video on iTunes. When iTunes released their Top Sellers of 2007, "Rockstar" was the 14th best selling digital song of 2007, and the "Rockstar" video was the #1 selling music video on iTunes for 2007. "Rockstar" is now the band's best selling digital single to date in the U.S., currently with U.S. digital sales of over 2 million. On 12 September 2007, "Rockstar" reached a new peak of #6 on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking higher than "Far Away" did, becoming Nickelback's third Top 10 hit from All the Right Reasons, their fifth career Hot 100 Top Ten overall.

"Rockstar" was a success in the United Kingdom, and the most successful single overall of Nickelback's career there, where it peaked at #2 in the UK Singles Chart and #1 in the UK Official Download Chart. The song was released in physical form in the country after becoming popular online and climbing into the top 50 on downloads alone. Over two years after the release of All the Right Reasons, it became the band's biggest hit in the country, selling 587,000 copies (to date) and outperforming their breakout hit, "How You Remind Me", which reached #4 in 2002. The release of "Rockstar" also helped All the Right Reasons achieve a top 10 position in the UK Albums Chart for the first time, becoming their third top 10 album there. It also pushed sales of the album there from under 200,000 to over half a million. In the UK it was one of the biggest selling singles of 2008. The song remained on the UK Singles Chart for 50 consecutive weeks before falling off in October 2008, making it one of the most successful songs on the chart in years in terms of longevity. It fell out of the top 40 on 6 July 2008.

On 10 August 2008, the song re-entered the UK Singles Chart at #27, and stayed in the chart for an extra four weeks, taking its current total of weeks inside the UK Top 40 up to 35. Many fans believe that the re-entry was a result of the song being featured on a DFS Sofa's advert. The song received the Record of the Year award in the UK for 2008.

The song was the 99th biggest-selling in the UK in 2008, despite not reaching number one.

This song was #100 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Best Songs of 2007, despite the fact that the band has been consistently criticized by the publication.

Track listing

Maxi-Single

1. "Rockstar" (Album Version) - 4:15
2. "Rockstar" (Clean Version) - 4:15
3. "Never Again" (Live in Atlanta) - 4:16
4. "Photograph" (Live in Atlanta) - 4:38
5. "Rockstar" (Video)

Pop culture references

The lyrics can be taken as a satirical commentary on the lifestyle (or perceived lifestyle) of a rockstar, or as a glorification of material success at the expense of artistic integrity. The material desires of the rockstar are listed, but the practice needed to become proficient at rock music is never mentioned. For example:

"I want a brand new house/ on an episode of Cribs/ And a bathroom I can play baseball in bed

... I want a new tour bus full of old guitars/

My own star on Hollywood Boulevard"

The song echoes a similar sentiment expressed in earlier satirical odes to the rockstar lifestyle, including the Dire Straits song "Money for Nothing" which was a hit in 1985, as well as the 1978 Joe Walsh single, "Life's Been Good," Dr. Hook's "Cover of the Rolling Stone" in 1973, The Jam's "To Be Someone" from their 1978 album All Mod Cons and The Byrds' 1967 "So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star".

The song makes several references to American popular culture: MTV Cribs (Chad Kroeger, the band's frontman, appeared on an episode of the show), the Playboy Mansion and Playmates, and a spot between James Dean and Cher on Hollywood's Walk of Fame (Nickelback is already on Canada's Walk of Fame).

Music video

When the song was first released in August 2006, a music video was not made for the single. Dori Oskowitz, who directed the band's "If Everyone Cared" video, returned to direct the music video for the song's re-release. The video would go on to become the top selling music video of 2007 on iTunes.

The video features celebrities and non-celebrities lip synching to the lyrics. The non-celebrities are often filmed in front of iconic landmarks, such as Times Square in New York and Millennium Park in Chicago The metal acorn of Raleigh, North Carolina and the Raleigh City Market. Celebrities include Billy Gibbons (who voices his lines in the song), Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Eliza Dushku, Gene Simmons, Wayne Gretzky, Big & Rich's John Rich, the cast of The Girls Next Door, Jerry Cantrell, The Naked Cowboy, Kid Rock, Lupe Fiasco, Nelly Furtado, the crew from American Chopper, Paul Wall, Ted Nugent, Grant Hill and numerous others. Sometimes the lyric they are lip synching relates to themselves. At the end of the video Nickelback is shown playing live on stage; this shot was filmed 13 July 2007 at the Comcast Center for the Performing Arts in Mansfield, Massachusetts. The shot outside the Reichstag building in Berlin was filmed on 23 July 2007.

• 
  Filming outside the Reichstag in Berlin

Release history

Country	Release Date	Version
United States	August 22, 2006 (2006-08-22)	Original
	June 6, 2007 (2007-06-06)	Re-release
United Kingdom	November 12, 2007 (2007-11-12)

Charts

Chart	Peak position
Austrian Singles Chart	5
Australian Singles Chart	2
Canadian BDS Airplay Chart	13
Slovak Airplay Chart	28
Denmark Singles Chart	32
Belgian Singles Chart	23
Danish Singles Chart	32
Dutch Top 40	25
European Hot 100 Singles	7
German Singles Chart	23
Irish Singles Chart	2
Russian Airplay Chart	2
Swedish Singles Chart	10
Swiss Singles Chart	14
UK Singles Chart	2
UK Rock Chart	1
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	6
U.S. Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks	4
U.S. Billboard Modern Rock Tracks	37
U.S. Billboard Pop 100	6

Chart (2000–2009)	Peak position
UK Top 100 Songs of the Decade	54

• "Rockstar" has sold over 3,000,000 downloads in the U.S. as of May 2009 and it is the best selling rock single of the 21st century before How You Remind Me.
• "Rockstar" entered the UK singles chart on 21 October 2007 and lasted almost 9 months on the chart. On August 10, 2008, the song re-entered the chart.
• It re-entered the U.S. Singles Chart at number forty-seven on 7 July 2007.

External links

• Rockstar Lyrics at Nickelback's official site

• "Rockstar" Official music video on YouTube