It’s time to remind us all how good they really are.

Nickelback is just a band. As far as I understand, they never killed anyone. They have no known history of animal abuse and have never been involved in a multi-level marketing scheme.

And yet, you would be forgiven for suggesting that Nickelback was sent by Satan himself to destroy the natural order of civil society, and for acting on the belief that Chad Kroeger must be the real criminal. involved in drug smuggling, arms trafficking and loud chewing. real estate agent.

Such is the hatred, genuine disgust and unrelenting vitriol that Nickelback instills in music fans around the world. They regularly top lists of the worst bands in music history, ahead of all the garbage: the horrendous rap-rock of Limp Bizkit, the suffocating pseudo-Christian rock of Creed, the harshly cloying pop of Coldplay, the disgustingly horny atmosphere of adolescence. from Fall Out Boy.

Nickelback is just a rock band. Of course, they can hardly be called Led Zeppelin, but they are not bad. They may even be, dare I say, good. What exactly did they do to incur this wrath?

Perhaps we need to ask another question first: Why do so many people feel the need to lie about liking Nickelback? Because a lot of people love Nickelback. They must do this. How else could they sell over 50 million albums worldwide? According to Billboard, they were the most popular rock band of the 2000s, and their signature song is: How you Remind Mebecame the most successful rock song of the decade. They have released 10 studio albums, six of which have been certified multiple times platinum on the ARIA chart.

So somehow Nickelback is both absurdly popular and the most hated band in the world. Curious. One of the main problems seems to be that early in their career, Nickelback were written off as a superficial attempt to ride the coattails of the beloved ’90s music subgenre, grunge. They were seen as fake poseurs trying to create a rock star fantasy with a subpar Pearl Jam impression.

And in a way, these people were right: Nickelback weren’t grunge. But any comparison to grunge was a projection of critics and fans too busy living in the ’90s to look beyond flannel and remember that rock music didn’t start with Bleach and end on Vitalogy.

Nickelback is a hard rock band with a pop edge. It’s not grunge or metal. This is glam rock. Poison, Whitesnake, Bon Jovi – they’re all subject to the same criticism of Nickelback, they’re all criticized by a vocal segment of music fans, they’re all wildly successful, and their hits continue to be played on radio and karaoke bars around the world. In songs like I feel too damn good And Rockstar who competes with Bon Jovi Wanted dead or alive or poison Talk dirty to me.