Nickelback

For much of the 2000s, the internet agreed on one thing: Nickelback was the worst band in the world. They became the default joke, the example of everything bad, the obligatory reference whenever anyone wanted to mock mediocre music. There were memes, "worst bands" lists, even a politician who used one of their songs to insult a rival. Hating Nickelback was a cultural phenomenon in its own right, almost a global sport.

And here is the fact that blows that whole story apart: Nickelback sold around fifty million records. They filled stadiums for two decades. They had one of the biggest rock hits of the century. While half the internet laughed at them, millions of people —genuinely, not as a joke— bought their albums, sang their songs and packed their concerts. Something doesn't add up in the official version, and that mismatch is what makes it interesting.

The numbers don't lie

"How You Remind Me", from 2001, was one of the most successful rock songs of its time, number one for weeks, playing non-stop all over the world. "Photograph", "Rockstar", "Far Away": one after another, songs that touched a real nerve in a huge number of people, that accompanied breakups, drinking nights, car journeys, important moments in ordinary lives. You don't sell fifty million records by accident or by a marketing mistake. You sell them because, like it or not, those songs connected with an enormous number of people.

There lies the paradox that defines them. They became the symbol of what "you shouldn't listen to", and yet a vast audience listened to them with pleasure, asking neither permission nor forgiveness. Chad Kroeger and his bandmates, Canadians from a small town, made direct, melodic, unpretentious rock for people who wanted exactly that. The fact that critics and mockers didn't like it doesn't change the fact that they spoke to millions.

Time's revenge

And time, as it tends to, began to hand them a quiet revenge. In recent years a reappraisal appeared: ironic at first, people who put them on "as a joke", and then increasingly sincere, people who admitted that they actually liked those songs, that they knew every word, that the hatred had been more fashion than real judgement. It turned out that hating Nickelback was, to a large extent, something you did because everyone did it, not because the music warranted it that much.

Surviving that —being the designated laughing stock of the entire planet— without ever stopping making records, touring and filling venues, has a greatness of its own. They put up with two decades of mockery and stayed right there, doing their thing, selling tickets, without changing to please the people laughing. It's a rare kind of dignity: going on being yourself when the whole world is pointing at you.

What to remember

Nickelback was collectively chosen as the most hated band in the world, the internet's default joke. And at the same time it sold some fifty million records, filled stadiums for twenty years and had, with "How You Remind Me", one of the biggest rock hits of the century. The contempt of the critics coexisted with the real love of millions of people. And with the years came the revenge: the reappraisal, ironic at first and sincere later.

Remember it this way: when a band sells fifty million records, the problem isn't the band. Nickelback spoke, directly and plainly, to a great many people whom fashion told not to listen to them, and who listened anyway. Withstanding the mockery of the entire world without stopping being yourself is also a kind of winning.

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Sources

Nickelback, Canadian rock band formed in Hanna, Alberta, in 1995, led by Chad Kroeger (vocals and guitar), alongside Ryan Peake, Mike Kroeger and Daniel Adair. It is one of the best-selling rock bands of the 21st century, with around fifty million records sold worldwide. "How You Remind Me" (2001) was one of the biggest rock hits of its era, number one on several charts; hits such as "Photograph", "Rockstar" and "Far Away" followed. Despite its enormous commercial success, the band was for years labelled the "most hated band", especially on the internet, followed in recent years by a more favourable public reappraisal. Profile compiled for Rebobinados with fact-checking; interpretations of the meaning of the work are offered as the author's reading. No song lyrics are reproduced, for copyright reasons. Information drawn from Wikipedia, Far Out, Distractify, StatSignificant and other coverage.