One of the seemingly most hated and ripped on bands out there is none other than Nickelback, the Canadian rock band. When anyone says they enjoy Nickelback, people either cringe or laugh because it is such a running joke nowadays that they are the "world's most hated band."
But you know what? They're really not bad.
Some songs are actually great, and I'm willing to bet my left foot that everyone knows at least some of their songs. "How You Remind Me," "Rockstar," and "If Today Was Your Last Day" are some of their most popular songs. If you heard a sample of any of these songs, you probably have heard them before and maybe even enjoyed them. Why am I defending Nickelback right now? Well, I just think so many people enjoy jumping on "hype trains" of either blindly loving or hating something without really having their own opinion on the matter. Nickelback has got to be one of these.
Let's go through their accomplishments real quick so you know how much the world really hates them, shall we? They were listed as the 11th best-selling bands in history last year by BMG, and the second best-selling US-based band behind only the Beatles. They have sold over 50 million albums worldwide, competing with the likes of Eminem, Guns N' Roses, U2, and Van Halen. The lead singer, Chad Kroeger, is worth over $60 million. Point being, they're successful as all hell. So why does everyone hate them? I've done some investigating to find out.
When they signed their first record deal in 1999, Nickelback signed with a metal label named Roadrunner Records. This is where it all seemed to start for the band's hate. Roadrunner Records was a prominent metal label in the country at the time, and Nickelback was relatively different from the other metal bands that the label had under them. They were more for a mainstream audience, which made the other metal bands and fans see the record label as selling out. This was where some of the first seeds of hate were planted.
After Nickelback started to produce successful albums, they began to get more media attention.
"Around that same time, something interesting was happening that might have subconsciously turned millions of people into Nickelback haters. From 2002 to 2004, a show called Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn aired on Comedy Central. It was a panel comedy show where four comedians discussed topical news stories, and the network advertised the hell out of it. One promo that ran during nearly all of Comedy Central's commercials break for months was a clip from the show that featured comedian Brian Posehn responding to a prompt about a study published on May 5, 2003, that tied violent lyrics to violent behavior. He famously said, 'No one talks about the studies that show that bad music makes people violent, but listening to Nickelback makes me want to kill Nickelback'."
After this, the joke seemed to have caught on and mocking Nickelback became something that most people did. Other aspects to the band also make the band seem hate-able/easy to make fun of; the lead singer is kind of a weirdo and many of their songs sound the same. But all of these aspects don't take away from their extreme commercial success.
Again, I honestly like them. No, they aren't my favorite band or really anywhere close. But they are a solid band. They have some good songs, they don't take themselves too seriously, they have a kick-ass cover to Metallica's "Sad But True" and they seem like a bunch of good guys. I just hate when people just jump on bandwagons because it is the mainstream thing to do, and Nickelback is one of the most hated and successful bands ever which is extremely strange. Stop the unnecessary hate, everyone.
