Chad Kroeger And Avril Lavigne's Engagement Is Literally The Biggest News Ever, Eh? [UPDATE]

posted in: Music NewsPopRock

People Magazine got the scoop of a lifetime last night, reporting that Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger and pop starlett Avril Lavigne were newly engaged following a whirlwind romance. The linking of the houses of Kroeger and Lavigne represents a consolidation of power as the two families now have a stranglehold on bad Canadian rock.

That was a joke. But seriously, this is huge.

The news of the pairing was announced yesterday. The Internet summarily freaked out, as it is prone to do. A day later, the story is less about the engagement itself and more about the meme-y detritus that the impending nuptials have inspired. #Chavril is a juggernaut of a meme, gaining strength by feeding off of itself. Think about all of the factors involved: the combined fame (infamy?) of Chad and Avril, the shock of the news, and the dissemination of the story through social media outlets such as Twitter and Tumblr. It’s the perfect Internet storm.

Note the hashtag above. Twitter has been alight with armchair comedians cracking wise about the paring. Many even believe that the engagement is a sign of the apocalypse, as NME noted. You would be hard pressed to find a website that isn’t posting a possible image of what the couple’s offspring might look like. (The results of such photoshopping escapades range from inoffensively cute to deranged.)

So the couple is happy, the Internet is happy, and music journos are happy that they have something of this magnitude to write about. There’s not a sour note to be found in this story. Unless your Avril’s ex-husband and Sum 41 frontman Derick Whibley. No word on his reaction to Lavigne’s engagement, but he is likely now unhappy that he and his band covered Nickelback’s “How You Remind Me” a couple years back. Oh, the irony of it all.

Update: Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine weighs in by confirming that he IS NOT, I REPEAT, IS NOT the one getting engaged to Chad Kroeger.

Thanks for the info Adam.

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