pitchfork is dumb (#34985859340293849494 in a series.)

yeah that got old fast

Ha, Live 88.5? I've seen the "Bieber-free" and "Miley-free" guarantees. I didn't know that Nickelback had become verboten to modern rock stations. That's interesting.
2xp

Lol, apparently it was a tremendously successful marketing campaign, according to this blogger.

I saw Nickelback live near the early peak of their popularity. I didn't like them but tried to go in with an open mind. The first three songs or so were fine, as far as that stuff goes, but then they stopped playing and wasted time firing t-shirts out into the crowd with canons like at a sporting event. The show never recovered, and the show devolved further and further into boring cliches ("we have never played to a crowd as awesome as Chicago, you guys rock, we're going to order 10,000 pizzas and PARTY WITH YOU!"). So is hating Nickelback a class thing? Probably, the same way hating NASCAR is a class thing, but that's not going to stop me from hating NASCAR and NASCAR culture. I'd say the burden is on them (NASCAR, Nickelback, hell, Trump supporters) to demonstrate they are more than just some dubious low/no-class monolith, not me.

xp That's the one. I may have screamed at my TV a couple times at the list of bands they will play after the "No Nickelback" declaration.

funny to actually watch the poptimist goal posts moving in real time around here

I can't wait till you guys are "critically reassessing" Kidz Bop CDs

I still think the idea of 'classism' seems pulled out of thin air when it comes to Nickelback.

Unless maybe you're talking about 'reverse classism/reverse racism'. If I associate Nickelback with any class, it's probably the white middle class. Like, does this (presumably lower-)class association extend to other popular guitar rock of the early 00s? Or is it unique to Nickelback?

I doubt solely the lumpenproletariat listens to Nickelback, especially in Canada, where their optics aren't quite as negative for obscure (read: subconsciously nationalist) reasons. Arguing that a dislike of Nickelback is evidence of classism is as ridiculous as saying it's proof of anti-Canadian sentiment (they won three Juno Awards in 2009, including the Fan Choice Award). Armchair cultural studies really need to perish, lest we truly and genuinely start believing that Taylor Swift also happens to be a champion of the common (wo)man.

Or is it unique to Nickelback?

Nah, Nickelback's utter sub-mediocrity is what sets it apart from other more firmly MOR butt rock. See also: why people mocked 3 Doors Down, Puddle of Mudd, other third wave grunge. I've seen plenty of shitty shows by bands of that ilk, but my aforementioned anecdote was meant to demonstrate how even on that level Nickelback failed. An analog might be, like, Hootie & the Blowfish, or a little more recently, Train. I've seen both of them live, too, and while describing them describes a million other bands, they were/are just that much worse/more boring, and of course neither of them played to the hesher set, which has always been mocked along class/genre lines, as documented in the likes of Heavy Metal Parking Lot. But whereas Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and stuff like that has gained credibility over the years, a corrective to knee-jerk snobby dismissals, Nickelback has proven more ... ephemeral, leaving behind chemtrails of sheepish disdain.

The thing is, I want/wanted to like Nickelback because I like anthemic AOR, like being able to enjoy what's playing on rock radio, etc., but their music just doesn't do much for me. "How You Remind Me" is the only one I find likeable but even that feels prett pedestrian and predictable to me, musically. It has the form of an anthemic rock ballad and supplies hooks but it doesn't do much more. And the text and music don't work together for me: the music feels too light for the bitter lyrics; the irony might be the point but it still doesn't connect.

xp I agree that they're worse (imo) than other bands. I'm just not sure socioeconomic class has much to do it.

I don't have to hate Nickelback since I remain blissfully unaware of what they sound like.

Socioeconomic class issues don't account for the hate - being shitty does - but Nickelback fans I nonetheless suspect firmly fall into the same socioeconomic class as fans of the band's hard rock/hair metal/AOR etc. predecessors. Which is to say, white working class, a familiar phrase these days. They're not necessarily deserving of disdain, but they do get mocked, and I'd argue get mocked for stereotypical socio economic class signifiers before musical taste. That is, for looking like Nickelback fans first, and being Nickelback fans second.

Just a thought… What about ICP? Is disdaining them a form of classism?

it's a form of S&M

ICP, IMO, is a much stranger, broader phenomena, like a comic book convention.

Yeah, Nickelback are just a band that had a bunch of big hit singles and albums - nobody defines themselves as a Nickelback fan. ICP is a cult.

I remember not hating the second-rate Bush/Silverchair posturing on their early singles when I heard them on the radio, and I'm even ok with Silver Side Up though 'How You Remind Me' is a song seemingly designed for minimal impact; I like the Bon Jovi-on-steroids rush of 'Too Bad' and 'Never Again' more. After that, though, they just released a bunch of terrible singles, and they seem in retrospect to be the right band at the wrong time, becoming emblematic of the whole modern rock radio format going tits up in the early 00s

Sometimes I think 'Photograph' is the ancestor of current dregs hits like 'Closer' and 'The Shape of You' in the way it tries to evoke an unconvincing specificity in an attempt to infuse a sense of 'lived life' authenticity into cheap sentiment.

Also, I certainly know a lot of white working class ppl who dog on Nickelback

australian nickelback fans and some talking about having to explain to their co-workers why they were going to see nickelback.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOLb81wwIec

I was briefly dating a girl who admitted to loving Nickleback and told me she didn't want any crap from me about it.

stopped seeing her.

tho tbf the two weren't connected

http://media.jrn.com/images/28145417-mjs_tapsnapsnickelback01.jpg

http://media.jrn.com/images/28145421-mjs_tapsnapsnickelback03.jpg

http://media.jrn.com/images/28145425-mjs_tapsnapsnickelback05.jpg

Vice interview some UK Nickleback fans: https://noisey.vice.com/en_us/article/oi-nickelback-fans-how-does-it-feel-to-love-the-band-everyone-hates

and some Austrian Nickleback fans: https://www.vice.com/alps/article/in-the-queue-nickelback-5847817a068ed40267712ee3

Nickleback had a radio single that began with the line "I like your pants around your feet" and if hating that is wrong then I just give up.

In general, Nickleback hatred derived from their string of abysmal hits throughout the 2000s and not from "How You Remind Me," which is their best song by a pretty huge margin.

i fucking HATE that song. i base all prospective friendships on reactions to the song.

(the first one you mentioned)

Yeah, I guess it's called "Figured You Out." Would probably place decently in my hypothetical "Worst songs I've ever heard" list."

my friend who has been a local legendary karaoke DJ for decades banned their songs from karaoke night along with Sheryl Crow/Kid Rock "Picture" and "Baby Got Back" for a while but it was making millenial wites vewwy upset so she reluctantly reallowed them.

"Picture" is good tho.

ew.

Oh yea, one line from "Figured You Out" is "I love my hands around your neck." But no, you're right. Hating this song is definitely reflexive and classist.

the lyrics to that song are kinda like Nickelback tried to take all of the reprehensible shit that they tiptoed around on other songs and put it front and center.

like basically anybody who sings it at karaoke has hologram fedoras added to their heads

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIlNIVXpIns

where's the funny (probably fake) story that UMS posted about Kroeger singing that song at full volume in a restaurant than peacing out

soref nice pictures of the reality show demographic

I respect Nickelback for being willing to just tee one up for the Photoshoppers like this. (This is an official promo pic; I remember when we got it in, at the label.)

http://hammerworld.hu/images/upload/Nicke178.jpg

Oh yea, one line from "Figured You Out" is "I love my hands around your neck." But no, you're right. Hating this song is definitely reflexive and classist.

Again, maybe I could see it working if the music sounded creepy and intense, or maybe even if it were manically upbeat, but over generic workmanlike alt-rock chug, those lines just... sit there in an unpleasant way. I'm honestly not even sure what they're going for.

(Assuming/hoping that Kroeger is trying to portray a violent misogynist there and does not endorse the viewpoint himself)

When people derided Bon Jovi's nomination to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on the basis of no one ever citing Bon Jovi as an influence, Nickelback seemed like one of a few bands that actually might.

reminds me of the dudes (and some women!) who find that buckcherry song "sexy"

like yeah, i get this is transgressive and sounds like the stupid stories your friend with a bad dating history tells after two beers about how a good hatefuck is so great. but, jesus, do you really need songs about using people with no self-reflection other than "lol i guess i am bad for liking this"

that nickelback song reads like they heard the nine inch nails song "reptile" on a bar jukebox and made it explicitly about sex with groupies you hate, and removed any pretense

they really do look like their audience. like phish. or icp. people identify. i can dig that. that's just not my tribe. i have an uneasy peace agreement with them though. they leave me alone. i leave them alone. unless, um, i need my car towed. or my dryer fixed. or anything involving tools.

it doesn't help as far as stereotypes go that i live next to Trump dudes i kinda hate who make huge bonfires in their backyard and park their truck next to the bonfire and blast shit like nickelback late into the night. i don't judge ALL fans based on them though. maria did actually see them shooting fish in a barrel one day. i kid you not. there are also three large apparently non-working boats in their backyard.

lol i am so sorry

reminds me of a work friend who lives outside of town. the next property over is a farm with some trees/scrubland next to his property. so of course the idiot neighbors and their friends come over to shoot semiautomatic weapons at thing and be loud in the tree line right next to him

one of those dudes ext door actually put on a statue of liberty crown and held a *honk for trump* sign for passing cars on election day. maria yelled at him. and he said he didn't understand why she had a problem because maria and him were both white...

almost as if people who are white would have a problem with... ok this hurts my head, time to shotgun some beers around a fire pit

Nickelback hate is reflexive, received wisdom. kind of classist, too

― flappy bird, Saturday, February 11, 2017 6:12 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol this so woke

Nickleback is a tea set doily compared to the guys that sing the "Let The Bodies Hit the Floor" song