Everyone has different tastes and preferences, so it's surprising that Nickelback has pretty much locked up the title of Worst Band of All Time. What is it about the Canadian rock band that makes them more hated than Creed, Insane Clown Posse, and Limp Bizkit all put together? While they're far from the only band to have issues with women, lead singer Chad Kroeger is famous for being immature and misogynistic, which is often reflected in his lyrics. In addition, many listeners find their sound bland and completely unoriginal.
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00:00Becoming the most hated band ever doesn't happen overnight.
00:04But what is it about this band, which sells out Madison Square Garden and has sold more
00:08than 50 million albums worldwide, that makes them so despised?
00:12And how can such widespread appeal and infamy coexist side-by-side?
00:16Here's how Nickelback became the most hated band in music history.
00:20If you think the internet's rough, you should sit in the van with us."
00:24Same song, different day
00:26As noted by The New Yorker, Nickelback started out as a 90s cover band in Alberta, Canada.
00:32Lead singer Chad Kruger's gravelly voice and metal-influenced sound stood out at the time,
00:37but instead of evolving through the years, Nickelback constructed tune after tune that
00:41followed the same formula, and no one could escape it.
00:44The only thing I want to hear right now is the sweet sound of this Nickelback CD cracking
00:49as I drive over it repeatedly."
00:51Because the band's generic music is well-suited for the radio, it's not surprising that their
00:55songs are tremendously successful commercially.
00:58How You Remind Me became the most-played radio hit of the 2000s, with over 1.2 million plays
01:04between 2001 and 2009.
01:07A famous diss
01:09Downfalls of Nickelbackian proportions rely on elements beyond the band's control.
01:14One such incident came with Comedy Central's panel show Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn.
01:18On one episode, comedian Brian Fossain brought up a study that tied violent lyrics to violent
01:23behavior.
01:24He quipped,
01:25I love the studies that show that bad music makes people violent, like Nickelback makes
01:30me want to kill Nickelback."
01:32The promo clip ran during commercial breaks for months, and Nickelback's awfulness was
01:36cemented early on for many viewers.
01:39Chad Kruger, frat boy
01:41One of the most offensive aspects of Nickelback is frontman Chad Kruger.
01:45Rather than inhabiting the spotlight with grace or even a rock star's cavalier recklessness,
01:50he repeatedly engages in juvenile behavior more befitting of a frat boy than a professional
01:54musician.
01:56During a Playboy interview, Kruger talked about the time he, uh, blew his own love whistle,
02:02so to speak, for a free case of beer, and bragged about his binge-drinking abilities,
02:07saying,
02:08I drank 13 Coronas in a row once.
02:10The little flap that seals off your stomach and keeps the food from coming back in your
02:14throat?
02:15I f----- that up.
02:16I can get a Corona down in five or six seconds."
02:19Kruger's oblivious behavior even veers into the harmful.
02:23He told Men's Health of the time he was on tour in Germany, and paid a drum tech approximately
02:27600 Deutschmarks to stick his privates into a fan of metal blades.
02:32He recalled,
02:33I can still hear… the blade slowly sputtering to a stop in this blood-curdling scream.
02:39It was fantastic.
02:41Couple that incident with his 2008 DUI, and it's easy to see how Kruger's antics show
02:46an alarming lack of concern for others.
02:50Lyrical misogynist
02:51Nickelback's lyrical content, written by Kruger, contributes to their bad name.
02:56His descriptions of women reduce them to a series of actions and body parts aimed at
03:00fulfilling his own fantasies.
03:02Occasionally, these descriptions veer into darker territory, with imagery that hints
03:07at violence and abuse.
03:09In their song Figured You Out, after mentioning that he likes a woman's pants around her feet,
03:13Kruger prunes that he,
03:15"...likes the way you still say please while you're looking up at me."
03:19The transparently titled Something in Your Mouth brushes his misogyny in even broader
03:23strokes with the lyrics,
03:24"...you're so much cooler when you never pull it out, cause you look so much cuter with
03:29something in your mouth."
03:31But he lands himself solidly in left field on Figured You Out, with
03:34"...while you're passed out on the deck, I love my hands around your neck."
03:39With that, many fans took their actual self-respect, and walked out on Nickelback.
03:44Patient Zero
03:45Continuing to march onward, Nickelback took it upon themselves to create carbon copies
03:49of their band.
03:50Theory of the Deadman is a Vancouver-based Canadian band that Kruger pulled strings for
03:55after he heard a demo tape.
03:57Besides bringing them onto the soundtrack of 2002's Spider-Man, and co-writing six of
04:02the ten songs on their self-titled 2002 debut, he signed them to his record label, 604 Records.
04:08Kruger continued to add insult to injury when he signed My Darkest Days to his label, a
04:13band which sounds like an unfortunate combination of Nickelback and Kid Rock.
04:18Furniture Rockstar
04:20A Finnish researcher conducted a study on why Nickelback is so hated, which revealed
04:24that the band's demise may have been thanks to the song Rockstar.
04:29Nickelback wrote Rockstar in 2005, and then licensed it for a furniture commercial in
04:34the UK in 2008, proving the band had zero standards.
04:38Their reputation then slumped, and aggressive behavior toward the group went up.
04:42Attendance at a hard rock festival in Portugal threw rocks and bottles at them during a performance,
04:47causing Kruger to stop the show.
04:49Have we got any Nickelback fans in Portugal?
04:53Up to you.
04:54You guys wanna hear some rock and roll or you wanna go home?
04:56And a petition asking Nickelback not to perform during an NFL halftime show in Detroit received
05:01nearly 56,000 signatures.
05:04But they played anyway.
05:05Every single human being that we came in contact with in Detroit was like, we love you.
05:11We have no idea what this is all about.
05:13Too cool to give back
05:15Another nail in Nickelback's coffin came during the Alberta Flood Aid fundraiser concert they
05:20headlined in 2013.
05:22Over 32,000 people attended the live-stream festival, which raised $1.5 million for flood
05:27relief.
05:28According to the Calgary Herald, the goodwill and good times lasted until Nickelback took
05:32the stage and effectively cut the live stream.
05:36Ladies and gentlemen, please put your hands together for Nickelback!
05:43Sponsor Tellus tweeted,
05:45Hi everyone.
05:46The Nickelback exclusive performance was a request from the band.
05:50Sorry we couldn't live stream this portion of the concert.
05:53The social media backlash was swift and brutal, but the damage was already done.
05:58The internet made us do it
06:00The internet changed everything.
06:02And for Nickelback, that change meant an even larger platform for haters to band together
06:07and churn out Nickelback-hating content.
06:09Look at this Instagram, it's been an egg side of ham
06:15Anti-Nickelback captions began appearing on popular trending memes, such as Grumpy Cat
06:20and Bad Luck Brian.
06:21And other people just poked fun at Nickelback for being Nickelback.
06:25Their bad reputation preceded them, making room on the bandwagon for knowledgeable haters
06:30and newbies alike.
06:31You know, I did read on one website one time that you guys are goat f***ers.
06:35I s*** goats.
06:37We make love to goats.