Nickelback. Purely a hate train?

slefain wrote:

wearymicrobe wrote:

Fueled by Caffeine wrote: Nickleback is an interesting study. They are basically a business experiment to build a band that churns out top forty hits that appeal to a mass market to make dollars.

What I find most amazing is they did that without actually making music.

So they followed the same formula as KISS.

KISS at least offered a way of saying "Look out mom & dad, I'm edgy as berkeley!" A role now filled by Marilyn Manson and perhaps Dimmu Borgir, who at least offer somewhat decent music...Nickelback has none of that.

Personally, Theory of a Deadman is my favorite band. Guess I just like bad music

GameboyRMH wrote:

slefain wrote:

wearymicrobe wrote:

Fueled by Caffeine wrote: Nickleback is an interesting study. They are basically a business experiment to build a band that churns out top forty hits that appeal to a mass market to make dollars.

What I find most amazing is they did that without actually making music.

So they followed the same formula as KISS.

KISS at least offered a way of saying "Look out mom & dad, I'm edgy as berkeley!" A role now filled by Marilyn Manson and perhaps Dimmu Borgir, who at least offer somewhat decent music...Nickelback has none of that.

Its a theory ive held on to forany years, but in hip hop. I firmly believe lil Jon is a genius, he's managed to make a bazillion dollars while never uttering more than a sentence per song. I just truthfully cannot stand nickelback. Nope. I will change the station when they come on. I was listening to some radio station and their tag line was they play what they want...and nickel back came on. They lied. Not even nickel back wants to play nickelback.

Around here, we call all of that garbage "Butt Rock". I don't even know why, but I feel that is an appropriate term. It's formulaic, derivative, and created to solely generate money. It's basically the Great Value brand of music. It's the kind of music that the trash bags that used to come into the Autozone I used to work at have at full volume when they pull up in their Sunfire, which is festooned with tribal tattoo decals and every trinket from the stick-on vents aisle. I've never heard anyone else actually listen to this stuff on purpose.

That said, the worst out of them all for me is Godsmack. They are far worse than Nickelback or any of the others in my opinion. Every song has the word "Away" in it about 10,000 times. And the way that little fart elf Sully Erna says the word makes me want to rip my ears off. "Go UUHHH-WAYEEEEE" "Keep UUHHH-WAYEEEEE" "Far UUHHH-WAYEEEEE" "Stay UUHHH-WAYEEEEE"

If you can't tell, I have deep seeded hatred toward them, going waaaaaay back. When they were still a bad Alice In Chains tribute band, a local radio station (WAAF) somehow got behind them and began promoting them (they are from Boston, like me). They used to put on these "battle of the bands" shows where the bands that "won" got airplay (and by "won", I mean they sold the most tickets to the show in a pay-to-play scam, having ZERO to do with actual performance or music chops), and they got hooked up with lots of airplay from that. Other, much better bands with actual talent got left behind. Berk them and that stupid radio station that made them famous.

Oh, and Pop Country can sniff it too. Berk that mass manufactured crap!

SilverFleet wrote: That said, the worst out of them all for me is Godsmack. They are far worse than Nickelback or any of the others in my opinion. Every song has the word "Away" in it about 10,000 times. And the way that little fart elf Sully Erna says the word makes me want to rip my ears off. "Go UUHHH-WAYEEEEE" "Keep UUHHH-WAYEEEEE" "Far UUHHH-WAYEEEEE" "Stay UUHHH-WAYEEEEE"

And EVERY Godsmack song boils down to "I'm a badass and you're a little bitch" Absolutely hate Godsmack.

NickD wrote:

SilverFleet wrote: That said, the worst out of them all for me is Godsmack. They are far worse than Nickelback or any of the others in my opinion. Every song has the word "Away" in it about 10,000 times. And the way that little fart elf Sully Erna says the word makes me want to rip my ears off. "Go UUHHH-WAYEEEEE" "Keep UUHHH-WAYEEEEE" "Far UUHHH-WAYEEEEE" "Stay UUHHH-WAYEEEEE"

And EVERY Godsmack song boils down to "I'm a badass and you're a little bitch" Absolutely hate Godsmack.

Yup. This right here. Tough guy music for non-tough guys.

why the hate?

just don't listen to it

SilverFleet wrote:

NickD wrote:

SilverFleet wrote: That said, the worst out of them all for me is Godsmack. They are far worse than Nickelback or any of the others in my opinion. Every song has the word "Away" in it about 10,000 times. And the way that little fart elf Sully Erna says the word makes me want to rip my ears off. "Go UUHHH-WAYEEEEE" "Keep UUHHH-WAYEEEEE" "Far UUHHH-WAYEEEEE" "Stay UUHHH-WAYEEEEE"

And EVERY Godsmack song boils down to "I'm a badass and you're a little bitch" Absolutely hate Godsmack.

Yup. This right here. Tough guy music for non-tough guys.

But what am I supposed to listen to in my jacked up truck with my sleeveless tribalEd arm hanging out, while looking down on society and sucking down monster energy by the gallon and talking about how sweet my dirt bike is?

Wow, you guys have some anger problems. If you don't like it, ignore it. I don't much like it but I don't get angry about it...

NickD wrote: I didn't mind their earlier albums, but then they got real generic. There are other bands from that era I hate more though, like Pearl Jam and Godsmack.

Who puts Pearl Jam and Nickleback in the same era? 1991 in the mosh pit with flannel on is what I think of with Pearl Jam. Background music at a Lenscrafters in 2007 is more of the era for Nickleback.

I'm indifferent to them but I saw them live because SWMBO wanted to go. Bush opened for them and I honestly enjoyed them more but Nickleback put on a good show.

All the musical artists(?) listed on everyone's hate list is in my collection. I like Godsmack, Nickelback, Creed, Pearl Jam, and all the rest. Not sure what that means, if anything. I grew up listening to KISS as well. Hey, hey I wanna be a rock star.

crankwalk wrote:

NickD wrote: I didn't mind their earlier albums, but then they got real generic. There are other bands from that era I hate more though, like Pearl Jam and Godsmack.

Who puts Pearl Jam and Nickleback in the same era? 1991 in the mosh pit with flannel on is what I think of with Pearl Jam. Background music at a Lenscrafters in 2007 is more of the era for Nickleback.

Eh, don't pay enough attention to Pearl Jam to know when they are from. All I know is, they come on, I change the channel.

Even as a musician they really do make me cringe. It's not the music as much as it is his weirdly chorused/processed vocals and their lyrics.

Spoolpigeon wrote: I read an interesting thing about their guitar player a few ears ago. He's actually a really talented player, but has realized he can make a metric E36 M3-ton of cubic dollars by churning out catchy tunes that appeal to the Walmart crowd.

I think this applies to most top 40 musicians. Look up John Mayer's performance with BB King or Adam Lavine's cover of Purple Rain.

It's starter rock. It's like the WalMart BMX "starter bike" that gives you a taste of jumping your bike off of a few things and riding fast but you eventually get better than the bike and need to move on to something that can handle someone who actually wants to learn and experience more. Every passion has it's "starter bike".

What a strange thread. I like some of their stuff. Some of it I don't like. Chad used to live not to far from me. He made enough money for a really nice house. Good on him. I dont think I have ever put any more thought into any of my musical preferences than that. Its just music. If I start not liking it I change the station.

NickD wrote:

crankwalk wrote:

NickD wrote: I didn't mind their earlier albums, but then they got real generic. There are other bands from that era I hate more though, like Pearl Jam and Godsmack.

Who puts Pearl Jam and Nickleback in the same era? 1991 in the mosh pit with flannel on is what I think of with Pearl Jam. Background music at a Lenscrafters in 2007 is more of the era for Nickleback.

Eh, don't pay enough attention to Pearl Jam to know when they are from. All I know is, they come on, I change the channel.

Yeah, Pearl Jam built the house of that sound in 1991. Nickelback is the rehash of the rehash. Their rime is blandness. It's like if pop country were rock, you'd have them.

I haven't been a Pearl Jam fan in a long time, but "Sirens" from a couple of years ago is a relevant, well-written, well-done song. They still have "it" from time-to-time, whereas Nickelback never did. Props to them for making millions from playing music, though. I'll give them that they won in the game of life.

I'm an indie snob, BTW.

I don't get it. They became very popular, then they became popular to hate. I thought I missed something. Did they pull a Millie Vanillie? Get caught lip syncing a concert? Screw up the national anthem? I even googled it, no smoking gun. I guess they got too popular to be cool. We like to build people up just to tear them down. I personally like their music. They are not my favorite, but they are one of the bands that I can actually listen to pretty much any of their songs. Many of my favorite songs are sung by artists who turn out a few great songs with the rest being unlistenable. I've actually been to see them in concert, and they were very good live and great entertainers. Actually one of the few bands that are just as good live as recorded. They did a couple cover songs really well that were far from their norm- I think Garth Brooks, Jonny Cash, and Metallica? Either way, done very well. They seemed to enjoy performing more than most other artists than I've seen, didn't feel phony or canned. I do tire of songs that get overplayed, but you can hardly blame the artist for that. I have a theory on why some songs tire faster than others- pop songs usually have a very memorable beat, and easy to follow lyrics. Many of the more obscure artists don't follow that pattern, and I've found songs that stay fresher with me for longer have harder to discern lyrics- I have to really listen and figure out what the hell they are singing about. I don't know if that makes for better music, but maybe it's more interesting to some? My wife calls it noise.:)

There are a lot of artists/bands that had a really unique or maybe even edgy first song or two and then when they became popular it all merged into indistinguishable pop blandness. I lump Alanis Morissette, John Mayer, and Jewel into this group. I don't know much about the record industry but guess this is forced on them by the record companies. Not really related to Nickelback but just and opinion about mainstream music.

As already said change the channel if you don't like em. I've heard some of their more commonly played stuff and it's average at best for me, but that's me. Personally at this point in my life I find some early hard rock almost metal from the early to mid 70's much more interesting and enjoyable.

In reply to SilverFleet:

Interesting. We always called mullet music "Butt-rock" (affectionately)

In reply to Hungary Bill:

It's sort of the same people, or maybe their offspring, that love this stuff. We can call this the New Wave of Butt Rock, or Nu-Butt.

I don't get the hate. There is certainly much worse from musical perspective. Not even Canada's worse music export - cough, cough - Justin Bieber. I think for whatever reason it became the thing to hate them. Very odd.