The Shilling

[MetalMagpie]

As always, I feel the need to post this:

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7846322/taking-concert-doubleheader-creed-nickelback-world-most-hated-bands

One of the lines from the article says everything:

"It's hard to get inside the existential paradox of Kroeger's life on tour: Every day, he gives interviews to journalists and radio DJs who directly ask him why no one likes his band. Every night, he plays music to thousands of enraptured superfans, many of whom love him with a ferocity that's probably unhealthy. Every concert ends with a standing ovation; if he feels motivated, he spends the remainder of the night partying with forgettable strangers who will remember him for the rest of their lives. Eventually, Kroeger falls asleep. And then he wakes up in a beautiful hotel room, only to read new articles about how everyone in North America hates his band."

I like their music. But enter any musical conversation, and the same three hates will come up:

Nickelback
Linkin Park
Metallica post Black Album

It gets old.

Agreed. I personally love listening to their music while at the gym. It has a good rhythm to run to and the lyrics make me smile.

This comic feels appropriate:

Why don't we all take a leaf out of the Hipster Bible and find a band no one's ever heard of to hate.

 

[Zombie_Moogle]

I suppose there's a right & wrong way to go about getting super-rich as a musician or group. I'd say a prime example is Papa Roach. They've gone from nu metal, to hard rock, to metalcore, & their new album even has small moments of dubstep thrown in. No one could argue they don't see the trends in the music industry & take full advantage, but they don't garner anything close to the kind of hate that Linkin Park or Nickleback are pelted with, and for good reason in my opinion. To start, Papa Roach is a very talented group. Even with all their genre flip-flopping, they manage to put out pretty consistently good albums. It could also be that they never really got as big as either of the aformentioned bands. They're famous, successful, have a dedicated fanbase, but they never cut a remix album with JayZ; pulling stunts like that might be the reason in & of itself. Papa Roach was on the Avengers soundtrack, but I doubt anyone here will fault them for that.

 

[Madara XIII]

The Shilling

They Did Try Really Hard

Read Full Article

I cannot tell you how much I love this comic just simply how it hit the nail on the head with Linkin Park.

I mean I'm in no way a fan of Nickelback, but Linkin Park's descent was not a very graceful one.
At least with Nickelback we knew they weren't trying to be anything besides corporate sell outs.

 

[Madara XIII]

Meh, I quite enjoy both Linkin Park and Nickelback. In fact, Linkin Park are one of my favourite bands (up there with NIN), and yes this includes all their stuff, old and new. Or at least their music, not a fan of the Medal Of Honor ads though. Although that's more due to it being Medal Of Honor.

[sub] Please don't kill me! [/sub]

I personally can't stand anything post Hybrid Theory except for maybe one or two songs from Meteora.

Meteora was pretty decent. And Reanimation was their last good effort.
Minutes to Midnight...It had promise. One or two songs were good, but that's the problem with Linkin Park now.

Only 1 or 2 of their songs are bearable if not any in each new atrocious album.

 

[gardian06]

why does the last cell look so stick figure-ish. I like the regular realism approach used, but why not keep consistency throughout. It kind of looks like the last cell could have been a splice from a Kim Possible comic/show.

Captcha: blog this
great now the captha thinks it can give me orders just cause it can do phychic stuff. not jet Captcha I don't answer to you... maybe I should start a blog.

 

[AlexanderPeregrine]

What always pissed me off about Nickelback is how little they think of their audience. Besides basically using a glam metal album structure without the tongue-in-cheek irony, their songs assume their audience consists of unambitious, conformist idiots that have nothing else going on in their lives but getting drunk, fucking, and wondering why their lives are shit. It would be one thing if they actually believed in all this... but they don't!

Why don't we all take a leaf out of the Hipster Bible and find a band no one's ever heard of to hate.

Ask and you shall receive.


EDIT: Bonus video

 

[MetalMagpie]

To be perfectly honest, Linken Park deserves a lot of their bile, but not for the reasons people say. "Blah Blah Blah Selloutsellout" who cares? Here's something I find much more applicable:

In almost every single song they've written, LP has some kind of drum beat going. But last I looked, they don't have a drummer. -_- It's that they are just a lazy fucking band, letting computers do half the work while reaping 100% of the benefits. People shouldn't pay others for music that they can just as easily make themselves at home with a decent computer and some shitty software.

Linkin Park's drummer is a guy called Rob Bourdon. He's been with the band since they formed.

Besides - even if they didn't have a drummer:

a) A lot of bands use session musicians when they don't have a regular band member to play the instrument (or just to get a different sound).

b) A lot of techno music is made almost entirely using a computer. It doesn't mean it's easy to do.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

As always, I feel the need to post this:

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7846322/taking-concert-doubleheader-creed-nickelback-world-most-hated-bands

One of the lines from the article says everything:

"It's hard to get inside the existential paradox of Kroeger's life on tour: Every day, he gives interviews to journalists and radio DJs who directly ask him why no one likes his band. Every night, he plays music to thousands of enraptured superfans, many of whom love him with a ferocity that's probably unhealthy. Every concert ends with a standing ovation; if he feels motivated, he spends the remainder of the night partying with forgettable strangers who will remember him for the rest of their lives. Eventually, Kroeger falls asleep. And then he wakes up in a beautiful hotel room, only to read new articles about how everyone in North America hates his band."

I like their music. But enter any musical conversation, and the same three hates will come up:

Nickelback
Linkin Park
Metallica post Black Album

It gets old.

At the risk of pointing out the obvious, you could replace every instance of Chad Kroeger in that piece with [insert terrible pop act here] and get the same result.

Nicelback are fairly terrible, but they probably do get far more flack than they deserve.

Like from video game based webcomics, for example?

I've gone 250 strips with no shots at Nickelback, I think I deserve one.

I say we call the Spiderman rule on this, just so that we don't keep getting them: Everybody gets one. It's alright as a toss away punchline, and in this case, are only half the punchline, so that's cool. But recurring punching bag wouldn't work well. Also, hooray, new phrase! Anyone ever tell you you're a particularly good wordsmith when it comes to bile-filled phrases? Because if not, that's what I'm doing now. And if so, then I'm reinforcing it.

 

[tehweave]

I don't hate Nickelback.

I'm not a fan, but I could pick out 3 or so songs out of their entire repertoire that I actually enjoy.

Heck, I have a few on my MP3 player.

They aren't awful, but I'm not going to sing their praises.

They're okay.

 

[MetalMagpie]

What always pissed me off about Nickelback is how little they think of their audience. Besides basically using a glam metal album structure without the tongue-in-cheek irony, their songs assume their audience consists of unambitious, conformist idiots that have nothing else going on in their lives but getting drunk, fucking, and wondering why their lives are shit. It would be one thing if they actually believed in all this... but they don't!

It may just be because I'm British, but I find Nickelback's music to be almost completely tongue-in-cheek. So many of the songs are so wonderfully silly, full of over-blown innuendo and stories about drunken stupidity. "Something in Your Mouth" makes me smile every time I listen to it. It's completely stupid, but completely full of life.

I'm not such a fan of their more serious offerings like "Just to Get High" (although "Lullaby" was surprisingly decent) but when they're being silly they're great.

 

[MetalMagpie]

The wise prophet Jeph Jacques once said "The greatest hipster (indy) band ever created creates no songs, releases no material. That way, they can never be mainstream, and thus be a perfect talking out your ass point forever."

A wise man indeed.

After all, it wouldn't do become popular or (heaven forbid) to make money out of that-one-thing-you-want-to-do-with-your-life.

 

[MorganL4]

My only real problem with Nickelback came about when this happened:


That said I do Like the song that Kroeger featured on that Santana did a few years back.

 

[Thedutchjelle]

Meh, I quite enjoy both Linkin Park and Nickelback. In fact, Linkin Park are one of my favourite bands (up there with NIN), and yes this includes all their stuff, old and new. Or at least their music, not a fan of the Medal Of Honor ads though. Although that's more due to it being Medal Of Honor.

[sub] Please don't kill me! [/sub]

I personally can't stand anything post Hybrid Theory except for maybe one or two songs from Meteora.

I dont know if it's my browser or your avatar, but your Weeping Angel moves when I scroll away from it and back again. You creepy bastard D:

On topic: I don't know either band. I've heard the names but I doubt I know the songs. Still enjoyed the comic though

 

[Fappy]

Meh, I quite enjoy both Linkin Park and Nickelback. In fact, Linkin Park are one of my favourite bands (up there with NIN), and yes this includes all their stuff, old and new. Or at least their music, not a fan of the Medal Of Honor ads though. Although that's more due to it being Medal Of Honor.

[sub] Please don't kill me! [/sub]

I personally can't stand anything post Hybrid Theory except for maybe one or two songs from Meteora.

I dont know if it's my browser or your avatar, but your Weeping Angel moves when I scroll away from it and back again. You creepy bastard D:

On topic: I don't know either band. I've heard the names but I doubt I know the songs. Still enjoyed the comic though

What are you talking about? It's a statue! Statues don't move!

 

[PunkRex]

I liked 'All the right reasons'...

 

[MortifiedPenguin]

Spoiler: At least Linkin Park seems to be moderately self aware.

 

[OfficialJab]

Hybrid < Minutes < Meteora < Living < Reanimation < Thousand

Questions?

 

[Hagi]

I disagree. In fact, I'd say that convincing people that expectations of integrity belong only in the realms of hipsterdom is one of the many reasons mainstream music is in such a sorry state.

People need and want money, I dig that and I think everyone should get one freebie (I'm looking at you, Muse). But Linkin Park have put their name behind not one, not two, but three of Bay's Transformer movies and two of EA's terrible COD knock-offs.

Your point kinda falls apart when other bands put their name behind other properties and receive only praise.

Nobody accused The National of selling out when they produced a song for Portal. The only thing that happened is that it got nominated for best video game music.

If people hate the music and/or property then they'll call it selling out. If people love the music and/or property then it's all good.

Which makes "selling out" quite meaningless since if there's one thing that people will never agree on it's what is good and what is bad.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

I disagree. In fact, I'd say that convincing people that expectations of integrity belong only in the realms of hipsterdom is one of the many reasons mainstream music is in such a sorry state.

People need and want money, I dig that and I think everyone should get one freebie (I'm looking at you, Muse). But Linkin Park have put their name behind not one, not two, but three of Bay's Transformer movies and two of EA's terrible COD knock-offs.

Your point kinda falls apart when other bands put their name behind other properties and receive only praise.

Nobody accused The National of selling out when they produced a song for Portal. The only thing that happened is that it got nominated for best video game music.

If people hate the music and/or property then they'll call it selling out. If people love the music and/or property then it's all good.

Which makes "selling out" quite meaningless since if there's one thing that people will never agree on it's what is good and what is bad.

This is also a very good point that I forgot to make. It seems the sell-out mantra only comes up when the people making that accusation already have an axe to grind.

Ironically, I'll be more convinced of it as a legitimate criticism when I hear someone say "I get that this is a complete sell-out, but I like the song anyway."

 

[TsunamiWombat]

I don't hate Nickelback.

I'm not a fan, but I could pick out 3 or so songs out of their entire repertoire that I actually enjoy.

Heck, I have a few on my MP3 player.

They aren't awful, but I'm not going to sing their praises.

They're okay.

I must concur. A few of their songs are ok. That's why they're so popular, and so popular to hate. They're so incredibly vanilla and omnipresent.