Why does Nickelback suck so bad?

knapplc

knapplc

International Man of Mystery
I'll admit - I first heard of Nickelback from people who hated them. Before I'd ever heard any of their songs I read comments about them on forums, had friends talk about how bad they were, heard it on the radio, etc. But then later I heard a few of their songs and liked them. They were catchy and I liked the lead singer's voice.

But the shelf-life of these songs seems short. For whatever reason, after a few listens, every one of their songs started to grate on my nerves. After a while I found I couldn't stand them, and I didn't know why. Finally I had to remove them from my mp3 player entirely.

So I ask - what is it about Nickelback that seems to draw such universal dislike? And what is it that keeps them in the limelight, selling albums like crazy, despite so much dislike?

 
Saw thread title - lol'd hard.

I think Nickelback has talented musicians, but I think it's their rock ballads that cause the most damage among all the 'haters,' ,or whatever you wanna call em. Take a song like photograph. Wholly, it's not a terrible song, but it is (and was) extremely overplayed and extremely sappy. I cringe when I hear it because I've heard it hundreds of times, and it's so sappy and ballad-y (pretty sure I made that word up) that I can't stand it anymore.

I used to like them. In fact, Curb and Silver Side Up are still (I think) two really good albums, and their real breakout song (How You Remind Me) is still a pretty good song, imho. But, their last several singles have been less rock and more pop, which is why I can't stand them.

Today, I tell people I like old Nickelback, but not recent (last several years) Nickelback.

 
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There's also something about them that drives music "purists" or "audiophiles" (or whatever you want to call them) crazy. I'm talking about people who truly know music, not people like me for whom music is either GOOD or BAD, without a lot of thought why. I had a buddy who used to be on the NU Drum Line who was the first person, in my mid-20s, who ever made me actually listen to the drum in a song, or the bass. I have no concept of breaking music down to its component parts, and I doubt I ever will. I view it holistically, or, if I break it down at all, I pay more attention to the lyrics than the music (for the most part - sometimes you can't help having a guitar solo smack you in the forehead).

So maybe I'm looking for info from people who truly know music, for whom Nickelback has always been anathema. If that's you - why?

 
I don't want to act like I am a music expert, but I am a bit of an enthusiast.

To me Nickleback is just incredibly basic song writing and structure. That can make the songs catchy at first since they are very accessible, but also causes them to get old quickly. Great songs have complexity no matter the genre, metal to country to rap to indie. Nickleback seems to have no desire to challenge their listeners. No doubt their members are talented, I am not trying to take that away. Nickleback just knows their cash cow is superficial music, they are sort of the Michael Bay of music.

 
Well, I played violin for five years and guitar for 10. I don't know a lot about music composition, as far as how all the parts go together, so I'm definitely not the best source. But, I think they bend the rules and enforce the rules like any other band I've ever heard. They're not musically inept, at least as far as I'm concerned. They're not looking at a chord sheet, jumbling it up and picking at random, at least as far as I can tell. They also use power chords like most rock bands, and they're not overly complex. They keep things pretty simple.

If there are musically inclined people criticizing their composition, it's probably because they simply don't like it, more-so than it's Nickelback doing something awful and disgraceful to music. If people have a problem with their simplicity, I think that's a fair criticism, though.

 
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Listen to "The Rain Song" by Zeppelin, or something classical, back to back with basically anything Nickelhack has done at any point in their career. I'm not a really music enthusiast either (I split my listening time pretty evenly between podcasts, sports radio, audiobooks, and music), but even to the untrained ear, I think it does have a lot to do with complexity. As far as songwriting is concerned, lyrics, Nickelback is worthless drivel, but then again so is most of what you hear on the radio. Again, compare any one of their songs to "Stairway to Heaven" or "That's the Way" by Zeppelin.

Everything Nickelback has ever done has been done before. And for them in particular, they seem to only ever want to do what THEY'VE done before again and again. Their sound is overproduced. Like Omaha-Husker says, their song structure sounds like it came from the copy machine in the basement of a major record corporation.

The only song of theirs I can even stand is one of their earlier ones, I think, called "Too Bad." Something about the Father's hands are lined with dirt/guilt line gives the song a midwestern kind of authenticity. Hate the chorus, though, so it's only partially salvageable for me.

Oh, and knapplc, this is getting scary. Nickelback is basically my most hated music group. They're my go-to example for the kind of music I can't stand. Even though I did used to like a few of their songs back in the day. Same thing happened. They age like cheap cheese in the hot sun.

 
From a blog post I wrote a few years ago

For the most part, I like popular music. I like Nickelback, Hoobastank, and Linkin Park to some extent. Their songs take me back to a time when I was gaining favor socially with most of the friends that I have today. It’s a nostalgia based appeal to me. I compare it to the way that Journey is popular now. On an episode of Family Guy, the gang sang karaoke in a bar, the song being Journey’s “Can’t Stop Believing”. It’s all of a sudden popular now. Why? Nostalgia. Rick Astley. Same thing. I guarantee in like 10 to 15 years we’ll all be saying the sentence, “Boy I remember this song,” to a lame Nickelback ballad.
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This was in 2008 though, and I'm starting to hate them with a furious passion.

 
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The king of simplicity is Three Days Grace. If that's the sole benchmark, they're worse than Nickelback.

Nickelback's lyrics are also lame/boring/overdone, etc. Most of their songs are about sex, drugs or some other pop-culture topic.

They're good at making money, just not good at making music.

 
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They're Canadian? I did not know that.

Does anyone remember the Soup Dragons? That was a band that really irritated me, because every single song was exactly the same. I get the critique that Nickelback's music is carbon-copy drivel, but it seems like a lot of bands do that, yet there's more hatred devoted to Nickelback. There's a fine line between having a specific sound and just making the same song over and over again. Nickelback kinda does the latter, but there are, apparently, people who just love that stuff, because they keep selling tons of albums.

 
I thought they were alright when I first heard them. Their album The State is still relatively decent. In the late 90s early 2000s nu metal was all the rage, and Nickelback were just straight foward rock n roll, which I found refreshing. It got old as it became obvious they weren't worried about writing good music, they're just worried about making radio hits. And they're excellent at it. Enhance89 pretty much summed it up with the song Picture. Decent tune, just overplayed to the point where it's just unbearable.

Watching them play this song, it's obvious they don't "suck".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iynt0jBD2U

They're capable musicians, they're just too worried about pushing out that next radio friendly hit to push themselves and make interesting music.

 
I think this article might touch on what you're getting at, knapplc. There's two pages, with most of the good information on the second page.

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/2011/11/nickelback_detroit_lions_halftime_show_petition.php

tl;dr, Nickelback has reasons to dislike them, but things have gone overboard and they've become somewhat of a pop culture whipping boy. They're an easy-out for people to criticize because, quite frankly, many people criticize them. It's almost a joke at this point, in a way. People don't know why they don't like Nickelback, they just know they don't.

 
I don't get all the hate, they can obviously play very well and from what I've heard/seen they have pretty rocking concerts. I like some of their music, not all of it, just some of it.

 
I played trumpet in High school for two years. What does that have to do with anything? Nothing, I just wanted to say Nickelback is terrible.

 
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