Seriously. Some of you act like this band has never been a decent heavy pop band. Sure, many of their recent offerings suck balls and are primary examples of narcissism, bad lyrics and corporate shlock, but their big CD Silver Side Up actually has some well-scripted, well-produced, heavy garbage-type pop songs, especially the songs that never got much radio/MTV play like “Too Bad”, “How You Remind Me” and “Never Again” received.
“Money Bought”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9TqwSXxuzU
“Hollywood” is probably my favorite. Don’t get me wrong…none of this stuff is deep or impressively rendered but these songs are well done heavy pop tunes which IMO are a far cry from what they are putting out now which (again, IMO) is unlistenable.
But some of the vitriol on this board towards them is kinda interesting. They are just a Canadian (so therefore you now have to accept blame for them…just like Bryan Adams…) heavy pop band. They aren’t spectacular in any way, their new music sucks, but you have to admit…this album was a pretty decent effort, even if it is throwaway music and not so memorable.
They were just background noise for the first CD. Not great, but not irritating enough to change the station. Then they did some song about him begging some chick to fly out and see him. We find out she did because we hear the announcement in the airport. I don’t think I’ve ever made it past that part in the song. The chorus is also pretty terrible. Rockstar pushed it over the edge for me. He says something about being able to get whatever he wants for free and in the background says he wants a quesadilla. Napoleon Dynamite’s food is the best he can think of? All of their lyrics sound like they’re written by 12 year olds once you start paying attention. Too Bad is still a good song though.
I have a similar problem with Bush and anything Gavin Rossdale does. Sixteen Stone has some good sounding songs, but I have to ignore the lyrics to enjoy it. He doesn’t sound like a 12 year old, he sounds like an idiot who thinks he’s smarter than he is.
I was living in Vancouver when they hit it big and had already been exposed to *way *too much of their music - I had worked up a legitimate hatred of them before their big album. When they did hit the big time their music was on the radio and in clubs and whatnot almost constantly, thanks to Cancon. I can see how you might have thought “this band isn’t so bad” if the first song you ever heard was ‘How You Remind Me’ and you weren’t forced to listen to it all the time. But by then a lot of people (Canadians mostly, I’d assume) already knew that it was their destiny to suck balls forever with their endless stupid songs that all sound exactly the same.
The hate comes from the guitar geeks in their mom’s basements who, for instance, compiled a video aimed at showing HUR HUR HUR thier songs is like the same !!!1!!1.
Truth is that Nickelback is not worse than any mainstream band, and they enjoy earning a lot of money and fucking beautiful chicks. The guitar geeks are just jealous of that
They’re just generally unpleasant. Dull sound, ugly voice, and creepy lyrics.
And it gets worse from there. I’m 42, and I’m not the target audience, and arguably the very goal is to offend people like me, of course. I don’t begrudge anyone who enjoys listening to them, but personally I don’t find any charm in doing so.
because the guy sings like
his voice chan-nels foot plods
that pull the song down and
every one sounds like it is
supposed to be about the
inertia of liiiiifffe…
Their lyrics are always super creepy and sound like they were written by 12 year old boys who have just discovered the existence of sex. But thinking about their lyrics reminded me of another reason to hate them - they have been somehow instrumental in the creation of the band My Darkest Days, whose music is virtually indistinguishable from Nickelbacks, although they may be slightly less talented. Anyways, in my neck of the woods they’ve been getting heavy airplay with the song Porn Star Dancing, with these charming lyrics (sung by Chad Kroger, no less):
This annoys me to no end, not only because it’s a terrible song with stupid lyrics, but also because the girl in the song is obviously not a porn star, she’s a stripper. How could someone who writes about nothing but sex not know the difference?
I finished unpacking this weekend and found one of their disks in my stuff and promptly trashed it (I think that is the only CD I have ever thrown out).
I vaguely remember buying it way back when before my brain was inundated by their shit on radio. I think I may have tried listening to it one time through.
Chad Kroeger has to be the worst lyricist of any band that has enjoyed any level of success.
I feel that a very, very large proportion of Nickelback’s success is owed to their particularly lucky timing. They happened to come out with an album right when hard-rock was beginning its resurgence (they had prior albums in 96’ and 98’). As mentioned by previous poster, CANCON helped them out immensely. Honestly…probably could have been any band of the hard-rock variety…their timing was just better…I don’t really think it has anything to do with their music quality.
HUR HUR HUR yes, many of their songs DO sound the same. It’s formulaic pop-rock. They’re not the only ones guilty of this, of course. Many bands hit on a formula for songs and stick to it, with great success commercially. I would put Nickelback in the same category as the Twilight series; your lowest common denominators are teens who are too inexperienced to know any better. Produce product, then profit.
You guys are killing me here! Keep in mind that I don’t really like this band much, but that the point is that while indeed much of their stuff is lyrically challenged corporate schlock rock, a few of their earlier songs aren’t that bad.
Interesting theory. I think their singer is a blowhard and a bad lyricist too, but just on the songs I posted in my OP, I actually like the sound that the guitars are achieving.
Did Nickelback do any of the soundtrack for the movie?
But what I can’t understand is why