BecomeMe

I appreciate the analytical approach to this. I've always thought it was strange how much they're hated. I don't love their music, but at worst it seems unremarkable, with a few relatively decent songs thrown in.

I read once - I don't know if it's true - that there was a compilation CD made of a bunch of Metal bands (a marketing thing), and they put Nickelback song on it for some strange reason. Metal fans were outraged, and every time the CD was discussed, someone would say that Nickelback sucks, which contributed significantly. That would be another case of #4 on the list, if true.

Blame ClearChannel. Nickelback emerged near the peak of one company fucking up commercial radio throughout the US. This new band played inoffensive pop-alternative-country melange, seeming broadly acceptable to everyone without exciting much of anyone. Their image was squeaky-clean while their conventionally attractive frontman looked vaguely rugged. All very saleable, but aggressively generic.

So: take an audience at peak rude irony. (This is the era of Celebrity Deathmatch, "Mike Tyson ate my balls," and Game.com ads calling their customers morons.) Subject them to the same middling singles over and over. Ask how they feel about this merely okay experience taking up air time that could easily be Destiny's Child, Third Eye Blind, or Shania Twain. Try not to act surprised when they smirk and say they hope the entire band dies.

People hate Nickelback because it's fun to hate Nickelback. It is easy and rewarding to hate Nickelback. Everyone knew about them, but nobody was a diehard fan. You could perform ingroup bonding with nearly anyone by saying "Fuck Nickelback, right?" You could privately grumble about hearing "How You Remind Me" for the dozenth time this week, without any baggage like Creed's religion-bait popularity or various artists' public feuds. Hating Nickelback is uncomplicated. To this day, I have no goddamn idea what Chad Kroeger is like, or what he's into, or what he's done. But I still knew his name without checking.

And nobody's replaced them. Rampant piracy deepened people's musical tastes by letting them choose what to listen to, instead of the constant deluge of lowest-common-denominator payola. Streaming later made it polite and acceptable to pay artists nothing. Meanwhile, internet forums and thousand-channel cable packages allowed culture to splinter. I'm not sure I've ever heard a Taylor Swift song. I don't care, and I don't have to. Having any reputation become memetic like this is obscenely unlikely now. To have that reputation be... mediocre? Unthinkable.

I can tell you exactly why I hate Nickelback. All of their songs sound the same, and that song sucks.

Look at this graph

I've actually thought about this more than I should. To me, Nickelback has a lot in common with Taylor Swift. Their songs use a formula that is almost universally liked. It's like an AI analyzed all musical hits in history and spit out "Rules for a hit song" that they both follow.

For example, one pattern I've noticed is the choruses often use a pattern of [Looooong note. Loooooong note.][Short short short short short note]. Their biggest hits all have this. People seem to love it.

Anyways, my point is it's enjoyable but formulaic music. The difference is that Taylor Swift's image embraces this more. She's pure pop, dance, love-song. Nickelback, however, tried to advertise themselves as a serious rock band. I think people sense the dissonance and have been angered.

Nickelback is just shitty post-grunge pearl jam clone number 78645. Every single one of these bands was terrible. Nickelback was just one of the more visible versions of this late 90s Clearchannel sanitized corporate rock bullshit.

I was of the opinion, it's because of that comedy skit. They are boring, repetitive, bland and overplayed, but so are other bands. They just had bad luck with that comedy skit. I'm not excusing the band, I personally don't like them, and heard they are jackasses.

I'm unsure where everyone is from, but as a Canadian from a semi small town.. there's laws about radio, 1/3 of all music must be Canadian.

Smaller towns have about 5 stations, rock, pop, country, CBC and Jesus...

It has happened with every single band / artist in my lifetime, Celine, Rush, Shania, the Hip, Avril and Nickelback... Those 3 stations find a reason any of those artists fit into their category and then all you hear for months, every third song is Nickelback and it drives you full mad.

Sometimes I worry that our annoyance spread with their popularity outside of Canada, and Michigan did steal our accent, so they might have borrowed some of the Nickelback hate too.

On a brighter note, I don't instantly change stations when they come on the classic rock station anymore, so maybe the world will forgive them in time :)

TLDR - Canadian radio is like BBC1, same 5 songs on repeat

I hate Rockstar, Photograph and most of their music that used to get a lot of airplay, I really like songs like Side of a Bullet, Burn it to the Ground, Animals, etc. and I'm indifferent too most of the rest of their catalog. I don't hate or love them they just are.

They're kinda depressing to listen to. I'll stick with Power Metal.

It’s ‘out of touch Step-Dad Rock’

I like How You Remind Me, Photograph, Savin' Me, Someday, Too Bad. I, for one, certainly don't hate them

Circle jerk, wanting to belong and the good old "making fun of someone else to try to be cool". Just like fucking high school.