The world's 100,3343,22 Nickelback bashing thread...

CaseOfAce

I'm just watching the Netflix doc that's just dropped.

Why is this band so supremely annoying even in the year of our lord two thousand and twenty four?

How You Remind Me is absolutely superb - that bit in the second verse where it they cut it back and then go full throttle, the songwriting and production...wow...
Photograph and Rockstart ain't bad either. No questioning their work ethic that would have put Motorhead to shame...

The lead singer's got rid of that Kenny G perm he once had... selling out arenas, lasting long term success...and yet... how can a band be so bland in terms of appearance, sound, performance...is it the guy's voice that grates?

thecolourbox

I quite like the album that How You Remind Me is on, it sounds good still now

Philly_Q

thecolourbox said:

I quite like the album that How You Remind Me is on, it sounds good still now

I've got that album too, and it's alright, although for some reason I never felt inspired to buy any of their other albums. 

I think the whole Nickelback-hate thing is mainly a bandwagon that people jumped on, though.  Coldplay suffer from much the same thing.  They both are pretty bland, but no worse than, say, Creed.... although that's probably a bad example as they get lots of hate too. 

Presumably the Netflix documentary makes some effort to understand all the hate?

ICBM

Philly_Q said:

I think the whole Nickelback-hate thing is manly a bandwagon that people jumped on, though.

Not really. I hated them the first time I heard them, with no prompting whatever… I had no idea I was so fashionable.

monquixote

I think it's because grunge was predicated on authenticity and a lot of the post grunge bands like Creed, Nickelback, Puddle of Mudd, Bush, etc come across as quite inauthentic.

Nickelback went so far as to go into novelty records like Rockstar which I think put the target on them.

Philly_Q

ICBM said:

Philly_Q said:

I think the whole Nickelback-hate thing is manly a bandwagon that people jumped on, though.

Not really. I hated them the first time I heard them, with no prompting whatever… I had no idea I was so fashionable.

I said mainly (or manly, actually, but hey ho, these things happen...).  Of course some of the initial hate was genuine.  It's not really your kind of thing anyway though, is it?

timmypix

They're incredibly talented songwriters. Chad Kroeger's said in interviews he specifically analysed pretty much every pop song on the radio to figure out what worked in terms of structure, harmony, melody etc. They might not always be coming from the heart, but they're good at what they set out to be.

I quite like their early 00s stuff; later on the lyrics clearly become writing whatever will appeal to a generic "rock" audience rather than being genuine or interesting, which I struggle to get past. This album's all about getting drunk with your friends and picking up women, even though we're all happily married! Now this album's about The Man and rebellion against the system! We're even using 7-strings cause they're cool now!

There are some banging riffs in there though; it's always fun playing a good Nickelback riff to a metalhead and then telling them what it's from! Flat on the Floor, Because of You, etc.

GoFish

I always as saw them as the musical equivalent to the National Treasure films. A successful concept co-opted into a fattened up format to appeal to a more generic or domestic audience. In the case of the films, it was taking things like The Mummy and Da Vinci Code and centering it around USA,USA, led themes.

The music, as said by @monquixote, was distilled and polished grunge-lite. We had "Britpop" over here. In the States, mainstream rawk and country had a post grunge vaccuum that was filled by all manner of things - initally stuff like Sheyl Crow and Green Day /Offfspiring - but soon enough into pop-punk and new metal. Nicklebback traded in on the authenticity credentials of Grunge and Rock long after all the copycats like Bush, Stiltskin etc had their initial run. Avril Lavigne was a pop version like Busted over here. Both were mocked for similar reasons I think.

monquixote

GoFish said:

I always as saw them as the musical equivalent to the National Treasure films. A successful concept co-opted into a fattened up format to appeal to a more generic or domestic audience. In the case of the films, it was taking things like The Mummy and Da Vinci Code and centering it around USA,USA, led themes.

The music, as said by @monquixote, was distilled and polished grunge-lite. We had "Britpop" over here. In the States, mainstream rawk and country had a post grunge vaccuum that was filled by all manner of things - initally stuff like Sheyl Crow and Green Day /Offfspiring - but soon enough into pop-punk and new metal. Nicklebback traded in on the authenticity credentials of Grunge and Rock long after all the copycats like Bush, Stiltskin etc had their initial run. Avril Lavigne was a pop version like Busted over here. Both were mocked for similar reasons I think.

In that context I think they are probably the UK equivalent of "Landfill Indie" or "Post Britpop" where those bands like The Kooks, Toploader, Starsailor, Embrace Shed Seven, Razolight get a bit of heat for being a bit fake and pointless.

Sporky

I hear Nickelback infrequently enough that I don't hate them.

GoFish

I got a shudder on reading that list of bands! Point of order though I think Shed Seven are contempraries of the Stone Roses but they did help establish the template for the wetter side of 90s indie until Travis and Coldplay had huge success towards the end of the decade.

Reverend

I enjoyed the documentary, but not a fan of their music. 

That said, The drummer was wearing DRI and VoiVod shirts, Chad apparently had helped metal bands out in the past and  I thought they cane across as decent people. 

rolls1392

I'm ok listening to Nickelback. Hadn't got a problem with them and don't understand the hate.

stufisher

My long time close friend has lived in Calgary for the last 20 years or so and he says the hatred for Nickelback goes way, way back ... before they hit big and had mainstream presence.

He was over in the UK visiting me around 2010 and Rockstar was playing on the radio. I distinctly recall him saying that in Calgary they're regarded as "a local bunch of assholes" and had been since their youth.

Here we are 15 years on and still they seem to be hated ... can't fathom it mesel ... poor bastards have probably never done owt wrong.

I don't like or dislike Nickelback, same is true for a limitless number of bands ... they are just there ... I don't need to listen to them.

rsvmark

Try being James Blunt

Philly_Q

rsvmark said:

Try being James Blunt

Yeah, but everyone says "I hate his music but he's really funny on social media".  That must give him a strange mix of emotions.

Reverend

The blunt documentary is also.worth a watch 

PotentialDonkey

Silver Side Up and The Long Road are brilliant albums… then it started to falter into cringe, and over produced. 

I’m not a hater of NB. But I rarely find myself venturing outside of those 2 albums. 

Creed_Clicks

That thing about Blunt being funny on social media has well run its course by now. He knows that's what people are expecting of him now. 

rsvmark

Creed_Clicks said:

That thing about Blunt being funny on social media has well run its course by now. He knows that's what people are expecting of him now. 

For me it’s his responses to people being twattish to him on line and dealing with it. What ever inspires them to be a twat, rather than engage, he slaps them down with largely self deprecating humour. Fair play to him for his way of dealing with trolls

LionAquaLooper

Because Chad Kroeger used to go out with Avril Lavigne.
I'm just jealous really.