Why DO people hate Nickelback?

[StriderShinryu]

I really don't get all the hate either. Yes, they aren't the most inventive band out there but, if you're honest about it, you'll find that most bands aren't (especially if they're popular). They make fun catchy music and know how to write a great hook. They're also actually pretty good musicians despite what you may think of their songwriting and lyrics. Oh, and they put on a great live show.

They're just the popular mainstream rock band that your mom just might be into, and that right there is damning enough for people to have an irrational hatred of them.

 

[orangeapples]

I always get them mixed up with Creed...

That sums up everything I have to say about Nickleback.

 

[HardkorSB]

As a guitar geek, I've discovered that Chad and Mike Kroeger have the tone of GOD in their fingertips.

Well, Chad is Jesus, after all.

 

[thiosk]

Its not that I HATE them, its just that I don't want them to live... anymore. its just that I turn off the radio immediately when they come on, and i tell Pandora to Never Play Them Again.

 

[someonehairy-ish]

I personally like Nickelback, but that has nothing to do with why I don't get all the hate. My question is, why do people hate Nickelback so much when the Black Eyed Peas still insist on existing?

You're still allowed to hate Black Eyed Peas if you already hate someone else. There ain't a limit on a hater's hate.

 

[mikey7339]

Because of what everyone has said already. They are mediocre drivel that got famous because it was exactly the kind of bland generic crap radio stations love to play.

That and Chad Kroeger is a douchebag!

Iron Maiden's lead singer flies refugees out of the middle east in his spare time...what's the last good thing Chad has done?

 

[Koroviev]

I was happily ignoring them until I looked up the song "Rockstar" just now. Uh, when did they go from very bland rock to god-awful country?

 

[Something Amyss]

Probably becuase they're a rock band with no distinguishable sound, whose songs all sound the same and appeal to the lowest common denominator.

Worse than freakin' Linkin Park, and that's something.

Sadly, more than "sound" the same. They practically are the same.


There was a video that did it with other songs, too, but I can't remember the names of the songs.

This more or less sounds like someone singing a song in rounds. It's not even that they're the same chord progression or key, many of the melodic elements are the same, and I always smile when the "yeah" parts hit in stereo.

I should write to Todd in the Shadows and ask him to review something of theirs sometime.

Poor Todd. Hasn't he suffered enough?

 

[werty8472]

This is why Nickelback sucks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2pXfAK8r1k

Two or three of their other 'pop hits' do this too, just go to YouTube and search "Nickelback songs sound the same".

Add that for some reason their songs continue to be placed onto radio stations. You'll be listening to some legitimate station and all the sudden Nickelback comes on with their gravelly-yet-whiney singing and your day is ruined. I mean, like the same power that breaking mirrors, walking under ladders, or opening an umbrella in the house has. Nickelback magically makes your day worse.

The fact that the talentless hacks exist is bad enough, but yeah, the popularity causing their omnipresence doesn't hurt.

 

[Something Amyss]

Because of what everyone has said already. They are mediocre drivel that got famous because it was exactly the kind of bland generic crap radio stations love to play.

That and Chad Kroeger is a douchebag!

Iron Maiden's lead singer flies refugees out of the middle east in his spare time...what's the last good thing Chad has done?

He's walked off stage a couple times. Nickelback not playing is pretty close to saintly.

 

[Ulquiorra4sama]

People usually say they hate them for their mediocre sound, and i can sorta get where that's coming form lately. They're playing it fairly safe, but things're usually popular for a reason and i think Nickelback are thinking "Why not give people what they'll listen to?".

They kinda fell out with me around the 2003-2004 i think because there was just nothing really new coming out.

I mean listen to this It's the latest thing i've seen produced from them.

The song is not impossible to listen to, but it's by no means special either.

EDIT: I still go back and listen to some of their earlier songs because i genuinely thought they were pretty good.

 

[Dusty Fred]

Thanks everyone for contributing, I genuinely appreciate your points and discussion. It's even given some context to my own feelings on them; I listen to Nickelback (as with all music I like) 'when I'm in the mood', rest of the time I don't, so I get why my opinion differs to that of someone who can't get away from them.

 

[deleted+75193]

DELETED

 

[someonehairy-ish]

Worse than freakin' Linkin Park, and that's something.

Got it in one, but no, nothing is worse than Linkin Park.

well yes there is....limp Bizkit, how dare they call them selves metal!!!

Limp Bizkit worse than linkin park?
At least Limp Bizkit thought it would be fun to take a running jump into stupid, shallow idiocy and wallow around in it, rather than just angst on at us forever.

 

[illas]

I think it's something to do with how successful they are despite their (in my opinion) phenomenal mediocrity.

This is a perfect articulation of why I *dislike* them. They contribute nearly nothing to music as a whole; offer little in the way of emotions or ideas; and lack any invention or artistic credibility... and yet despite this, they're massively successful.

With Justin Bieber (for example), I don't particularly mind this, since the teenage girl demographic is a) temporary, and b) extraordinarily shallow - mediocre boybands and Simon Cowell "reality" shows have proven this over the years.

However, Nickelback seem to be competing with actual music... AND MAKING HUGE SUMS OF MONEY.

Why listen to Nickelback when you could just listen to the infinitely better 3 Doors Down?

Spoiler

Oh yes I did

GG, Sir. Masterfully done.

 

[sky14kemea]

How the hell did we wind up like this?

And why weren't we able to see the signs that we missed, and try to turn the tables?

Anyway, from what I've heard, people don't like Nickelback because they're more "mainstream" songs are on the radio (Instead of their better ones, IMO). Plus all the songs sound kinda similar, but if you like the song, then what's the problem?

Of course some of their songs are gonna sound similar, they play their own instruments.

 

[ACman]

Your Honor, I tender this into evidence:

The A to Z of shit music (N) Nickelback

 

[ElPatron]

It's the Modern Warfare of music.

 

[Serge A. Storms]

Repetition is the process by which "mediocre and inoffensive" becomes "shit that is painful and offensive to the deepest part of my being," and as has been mentioned many times, no one in the music industry today is repeated more than Nickelback. Artists that have been around awhile will come out with new material and that will be everywhere for awhile, and I might like it and I might not but generally I'll be tired of seeing it everywhere after awhile. Nickelback has been putting out singles about half my life and it's always been the same sound, which means every time they put out something "new" I can only hate them more because they've already reached that stage with me.

 

[Hagi]

People want to be special and unique little snowflakes. They do this by hating on what's mainstream.

Then there's people like me who also want to be special and unique little snowflakes, but do this by hating on the people hating on what's mainstream.

And I'm sure somebody will come along soon to prove they're an even more special and unique little snowflake by hating on me hating on people hating on what's mainstream.

At which point I'll come back and prove that I'm the most special and most unique little snowflake by hating on the people hating on the people hating on the people hating on what's mainstream.