Nickelback Is A Better Rock Band Than You Remember

Have you ever heard about the concert that costs only 45 cents? Yeah, it's 50 Cent featuring Nickelback. It's a funny joke, but it's symptomatic of how Nickelback became one of the most hated bands in the music industry. The Canadian rockers turned into everyone's favorite punching bag, as the Internet audience decided they weren't serious musicians and deserved to be taken down a peg — or 20.

Now, music is entirely subjective, since one person's trash is another's Bon Jovi. It either connects with you, or it doesn't — much like with any other form of entertainment, really. In the case of Nickelback, though, it's almost become an online sport to trash the group and see if death by a thousand cuts forces it to go away. Well, it's time to cut through all the jokes and memes to admit what no one wants to say out loud: Nickelback is a good rock band. While not in the same league as the Beatles and Rolling Stones, respect should be put on its name, because if it weren't for Nickelback, rock would be dead — and that's the cold, hard truth.

So, get this: Nickelback, this supposedly awful rock band, put out its first 10 albums from 1996 to 2022 — and every single record charted in the Billboard 200. In fact, eight of these albums peaked in the top 10. For a band so universally hated, that's a lot of people consistently buying Nickelback's music over two and a half decades.

That's no laughing matter, nor is the fact that Nickelback effectively enabled other bands to make a living off music. For many years, the Canadian rock band was part of Roadrunner Records, which became synonymous with hard rock and heavy metal, releasing music from the likes of Slipknot, Killswitch Engage, Trivium, and Machine Head. While those artists certainly had their own audiences, few — if any of them — pulled in the same money that Chad Kroeger and the boys did. The music industry is an ecosystem that relies on all of its components, and Nickelback proved to be one of the most important bands that kept rock and heavier music alive.

"Metal fans don't realize what a great thing Nickelback was for them, because everybody thought that Nickelback killed Roadrunner," music exec Monte Conner said in Netflix's "Hate to Love: Nickelback" documentary. "They don't understand that Nickelback helped keep the lights on." Some of those stars who hate Nickelback actually owe it a thank-you.

There's an argument to be made that the overexposure of Nickelback ensured that the world became familiar with its music. After all, if you hear "How You Remind Me" and "Photograph" a million times over, it's likely that you'll recognize the songs when they play on the radio or at an event. Yet, a song being recognizable doesn't ensure that everyone remembers the lyrics. In Nickelback's case, those songs stay burned in the mind. When they come on, a core memory unlocks, unleashing all the words and melodies.

How many other bands have this type of power? Think of revered modern rock outfits like Coldplay and the Black Keys — if someone were to play their music to an audience consisting of rock and non-rock fans, how many people would be able to sing along to their songs together? Not every band is capable of creating anthems that transcend genre and musical preferences.

For over 30 years, Nickelback pumped out hit after hit, serving as the soundtrack to video games, movies, TV shows, and our best parties. Maybe that's why its shows continue to sell out and play to large audiences, while many of its peers disappeared or scaled down substantially. Isn't this enough to earn our respect? In terms of the irrational hatred toward the band, let's take a page out of "Photograph" in how we address it: "It's hard to say it, time to say it / Goodbye, goodbye."