Science Explains Why Everyone Hates Nickelback

April 18, 2016

A researcher from Finland has studied years of music critic reviews to find out the real reasons people dislike Nickelback.

Despite selling 50 million albums worldwide and topping several music charts in their 15-year career, the Canadian rock group has remained one of the most hated bands in the rock community, with Rolling Stone magazine naming Nickelback as second only to Creed as the worst band of the ‘90s.

In the paper published last month entitled, “Hypocritical Bullsh*t Performed Through Gritted Teeth: Authenticity Discourses in Nickelback’s Album Reviews in Finnish Media,” Salli Anttonen, a doctoral student at the University of Finland, explained what’s behind critics’ universal hatred for the band.

After his analysis of 14 years’ worth of Nickelback reviews, Anttonen found that the band was heavily criticized for its overall lack of identity.

“Nickelback is too much of everything to be enough of something,” he wrote.

He also discovered that criticism of the band worsened in 2008 when their song “Rockstar” was licensed to be used in a furniture commercial as it was seen as the band selling out.

He then noted that for critics who see themselves as “protectors of originality,” the band’s formulaic writing makes them question the band’s artistic value.

“They follow genre expectations too well, which is seen as empty imitation, but also not well enough, which is read as commercial tactics and as a lack of a stable and sincere identity,” Anttonen concluded.

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