Becoming the most hated band ever doesn't happen overnight.
But what is it about this band — which sells out Madison Square Garden and has sold more
than 50 million albums worldwide — that makes them so despised?
And how can such widespread appeal and infamy coexist side by side?
Here's how Nickelback became the most hated band in music history.
"If you think the internet's rough you should sit in a van with us!"
[Laughter]
Same song different day
As noted by the New Yorker, Nickelback started out as a '90s cover band in Alberta, Canada.
Lead singer Chad Kroeger's gravely voice and metal-influenced sound stood out at the time,
but instead of evolving through the years, Nickelback constructed tune after tune that
followed the same formula.
And no one could escape it.
"The only thing I wanna hear right now is the sweet sound of this Nickelback CD cracking
as I drive over it repeatedly."
Because the band's generic music is well-suited for the radio, it's not surprising that their
songs are tremendously successful, commercially.
"How You Remind Me" became the most played radio hit of the 2000s, with over 1.2 million
plays between 2001 and 2009.
A famous diss
Downfalls of Nickelbackian proportions rely on elements beyond the band's control.
One such incident came with Comedy Central's panel show, Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn.
On one episode, comedian Brian Posehn brought up a study that tied violent lyrics to violent
behavior.
He quipped,
"No one talks about the studies that show that bad music makes people violent, like
Nickelback makes me want to kill Nickelback."
The promo clip ran during commercial breaks for months, and Nickelback's awfulness was
cemented early on for many viewers.
Chad Kroeger, frat boy
One of the most offensive aspects of Nickelback is frontman Chad Kroeger.
Rather than inhabiting the spotlight with grace, or even a rockstar's cavalier recklessness,
he repeatedly engages in juvenile behavior more befitting of a frat boy than a professional
musician.
During a Playboy interview, Kroeger talked about the time he… uh, blew his own love
whistle, so to speak, for a free case of beer, and bragged about his binge-drinking abilities,
saying,
"I drank 13 Coronas in a row once…
The little flap that seals off your stomach and keeps the food from coming back up in
your throat, I f---ed that up.
I can get a Corona down in five or six seconds."
Kroeger's oblivious behavior even veers into the harmful.
He told Men's Health of a time he was on tour in Germany and paid a drum tech approximately
600 deutschmarks to stick his privates into a fan with metal blades.
He recalled,
"I can still hear . . . the blade slowly sputtering to a stop and this blood-curdling scream.
It was fantastic."
Couple that incident with his 2008 DUI, and it's easy to see how Kroeger's antics show
an alarming lack of concern for others.
Lyrical misogynist
Nickelback's lyrical content, written by Kroeger, contributes to their bad name.
His descriptions of women reduce them to a series of actions and body parts aimed at
fulfilling his own fantasies.
Occasionally, these descriptions veer into darker territory, with imagery that hints
at violence and abuse.
In their song, "Figured You Out," after mentioning that he likes a woman's pants around her feet,
Kroeger croons that he...
"Likes the way you still say please / While you're looking up at me."
The transparently titled "Something in Your Mouth" brushes his misogyny in even broader
strokes with the lyrics,
"You're so much cooler when you never pull it out / 'Cause you look so much cuter with
something in your mouth."
But he lands himself solidly in left field on "Figured You Out," with...
"While you're passed out on the deck / I love my hands around your neck"
With that, many fans took their actual self-respect and walked out on Nickelback.
Patient zero
Continuing to march onward, Nickelback took it upon themselves to create carbon copies
of their band.
Theory of a Deadman is a Vancouver-based Canadian band that Kroeger pulled strings for, after
he heard a demo tape.
Besides bringing them onto the soundtrack of 2002's Spider-Man and co-writing six of
the 10 songs on their self-titled 2002 debut, he signed them to his record label, 604 Records.
Kroeger continued to add insult to injury when he signed My Darkest Days to his label
— a band which sounds like an unfortunate combination of Nickelback and Kid Rock.
Furniture 'Rockstar'
A Finnish researcher conducted a study on why Nickelback is so hated, which revealed
that the band's demise may have been thanks to the song "Rockstar."
Nickelback wrote "Rockstar" in 2005 and then licensed it for a furniture commercial in
the U.K. in 2008, proving the band had zero standards.
Their reputation then slumped and aggressive behavior toward the group went up.
Attendants at a hard rock festival in Portugal threw rocks and bottles at them during a performance,
causing Kroeger to stop the show:
"Have we got any Nickelback fans in Portugal?"
"Up to you, you guys wanna hear some rock n' roll or you wanna go home?"
And a petition asking Nickelback not to perform during an NFL halftime show in Detroit received
nearly 56,000 signatures.
But they played anyway.
"Every single human being that we came in contact with in Detroit was like, 'we love
you, we have no idea what this is all about.'"
Too cool to give back
Another nail in Nickelback's coffin came during the Alberta Flood Aid fundraiser concert they
headlined in 2013.
Over 32,000 people attended the live-streamed festival, which raised $1.5 million for flood
relief.
According to the Calgary Herald, the goodwill and good times lasted until Nickelback took
the stage and effectively cut the livestream.
"Ladies and gentlemen please put your hands together for Nickelback!"
Sponsor Telus tweeted: "Hi everyone.
The Nickelback exclusive performance was a request from the band.
Sorry we couldn't live stream this portion of the concert."
The social media backlash was swift and brutal.
But the damage was already done.
The internet made us do it
The internet changed everything.
And for Nickelback, that change meant an even larger platform for haters to band together
and churn out Nickelback-hating content.
[Singing like Chad Kroeger] "Look at this Instagram/eggs benedict side of ham"
Anti-Nickelback captions began appearing on popular trending memes such as Grumpy Cat
and Bad Luck Brian.
And other people just poked fun at Nickelback for being Nickelback.
Their bad reputation preceded them, making room on the bandwagon for knowledgeable haters
and newbies, alike.
"You know I did read on one website one time that you guys are goat f---ers.
You guys f--- goats?"
"We make love to goats."
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