Why does everyone hate Nickelback?
I ask this question, not as a fan but as someone who’s genuinely confused about this phenomena.
About a decade and a half ago, Nickelback was just a band. Maybe even a POPULAR band. They made lots of money, they sold out tours. Nothing out of the ordinary.
I’ll be the first to admit, I’m out of the loop here but what changed? I opened my eyes one day and they became the symbol for musical mediocrity. For the sake of demonstrating the level of vitriol directed at them these days, here are just a few of the memes I found online:
Some of these are actually pretty funny but they don’t really answer my question. For every 'sin' Nickelback has committed (that I know of) there are countless bands that have done the same. What I’d like is for someone who’s given some serious thought as to why Nickelback deserves this much hate to explain it here.
I’m not expecting to have my mind changed. I like a few of their songs but I’m pretty much indifferent to their existence. I’m not promising to agree but if the points are good enough, I’ll understand. Is it Chad Kroeger’s voice? The instruments? The lyrics? A terrible social faux pas I didn’t hear about? Help me get the answers I can’t find in a meme!
Thanks (and sorry in advance if I take a while to respond).
Great post! that has always baffled me also
Thanks, I'm glad you liked it!
I did not realize this was happening. If I found those memes I´d be confuesed too. - Very entertainig post though :)
Thanks, sumsum! Hopefully we'll get some answers :)
People who care about which music is cool are mostly young, urban and liberal or progressive. They hate Nickelback because they're Canadian rednecks from Alberta. Everything fits that picture: the meaningless band name, the bland middle-of-the-road rock, the simple fake-romantic lyrics, the sexist videos, Chad Kroeger's douchy looks and self-important behavior, and the unsophisticated style of the fans that they do have. BTW, I think many people who answer this question on the Web produce a rationalization about musical issues because they're unaware of their prejudices.
Funny thing I learned just now: the only Nickelback song I had saved on my PC and MP3 player was quite a challenging piece of music, I thought, since so much of it was sung in canon. Now it turns out this wasn't one song but two: someone simply played their hits 'How You Remind Me' and 'Someday' at the same time - and the harmonics are exactly the same.
I love a good mashup so thanks for "This is How You Remind Me of Someday" lol! They're not the first band to turn formulaic though. From what you’re saying I take it they have the right combination of hatable traits for a lot of people to latch onto. Those traits have little to no effect on me so I wouldn’t ‘get it’. But who were people hating on musically before Nickelback?
I ran into this on Facebook and I have wondered this very same thing! I don't like all of their music but they have songs that are definitely among my favorites. Last summer there were strange things happening in my life and I was watching quite a few Nickelback music videos. I ran into this band by coincidence. They have a similar style and remind me of each other just a bit. There are no coincidences and at the time I was wondering if there was a connection to why Nickelback suffers the abuse that it does.
Last summer there were some very strange occurrences in my life, and I was watching a lot of Nickelback music videos. I ran into this band as a strange coincidence. There seems to be some similarity in their style and they remind me of each other. I was wondering if there might be a connection...to why Nickelback has suffered this abuse, somehow?
In this complicated universe, I suspect there's a reason for everything. Who's to say what's a coincidence or not? I like some of Three Doors Down's music too. As for Nickelback, the songs I like from them will continue to be songs I like. Musicians aren't their music kind of like children aren't their parents.
When something becomes a trend, people flock in to it. They also want to be cool.
I get it, not everyone likes the same kind of music but I'm not spending my time making memes about music I don't like. If that would happen, it might be time to evaluate should I really be spending time doing this? It takes time to realize there isn't bad or good music, they are all just catering to different tastes, made by people with different taste.
Personally, I like several songs from Nickelback!
It would actually make more sense to me if Nickelback faded into obscurity while these people raved about acts they actually like. But if there really is "no such thing as bad publicity " maybe this is working for them on some level...
I just remember a clip I saw once where people at some Canadian concert were throwing rocks at them on stage and the guy said "Do you wana throw rocks or do you wana rock out?!"
It made me laugh.
Upvoted
@shayne
Maybe this makes me a bad person but I'm laughing now and I wasn't even there. I hope everyone was okay though.
I've never understood this either. They're an average at best band, but god damn if they don't got a few jams.
Precisely! They might not be THAT good but they're definitely not THAT bad. Not consistently.