Daughtry

In North Carolina's Chris Daughtry, America has finally found a new-century rock hero it can believe in: an affable, chrome-domed underdog whose 2006, self-titled debut went multiplatinum, even though he finished fifth in American Idol's fifth season. The winning anthems keep on comin', stirring even those of us who usually can't be bothered with monstrous post-grunge singles (Creed? Puddle of Mudd? Nah) and putting lie to conventional wisdom suggesting that rock stars are an endangered species in this Darwinian MP3 age. And indeed — to paraphrase one of Daughtry's own robust, steel-belted hits — it's not over just yet. This spring, he'll likely find that his name recognition is on par with tourmates Bon Jovi.