At this point saying you like Nickelback is no better than saying Hilter wasn’t that bad in terms of getting a negative reaction out of people. It’s not even that people react poorly to Nickelback. It’s that it’s widely believed that liking Nickelback invalidates someone’s taste in music and is often seen as a blemish on one’s personality. Another level of absurdity on the topic is that Nickelback was a hugely successful band in the 2000’s selling over 50 million albums with singles charting regularly until 2014, and having been nominated for six Grammys. And I’ll admit it: I don’t hate Nickelback. In fact, I actually like some of their songs, and they’re Canadian, so it’s nice to see other Canadians succeed internationally. So what is it that made this hugely successful band the most hated band on the Internet? Well I did some digging and here’s what I found.

The most common narrative about why Nickelback is so hated is that they’re too commercial and mediocre. This came up on every blog post, Reddit thread, and music article I read on the subject. Nickelback made this pop-rock music that came in the wake of 90’s bands like Pearl Jam and Soundgarden. I would categorize them with other rock bands of the 2000’s like Smashmouth and Counting Crows. They were all rock that was sort of descendants of grunge, but made more digestible to a wider group of people. Nickelback were the kings of making mainstream hits. They were more focused on making hits than artistically good songs. They were formulaic and not genuine. Their lack of pushing their artistry really got under critics and music enthusiasts’ skins.

In a way they were set up for failure because they were signed to a primarily metal label in 1999 called Roadrunner Records. Since fans knew the label for producing metal bands, Nickelback really paled in comparison. Then the label put a lot of effort and resources into Nickelback as opposed to their other metal bands because they were so commercially successful and therefore more profitable. As a result, a lot of metal fans resented Nickelback for taking funding and attention away from the metal bands that they supported at the label.