Science Shows Why People Hate Nickelback

A Finnish scientist looked to find a scientific basis to why, though commercially successful, people hate Nickelback.

In her study titled, “‘Hypocritical Bullshit Performed Through Gritted Teeth’: Authenticity Discourses in Nickelback’s Album Reviews in Finnish Media", Salli Anttonen researched music reviews in Finnish media from 2000 to 2014, finding a bulk of the criticism against the band stemming from them being too safe and calculated,

Their songs are ‘optimally safe’, where ‘everything is up to par with the requirements of the genre’, and which create ‘an illusion of hard rock’ (Ojala 2002). The music is described as being ‘fake’ (Riikonen 2012), ‘forced’ (Hilden 2011) and ‘performed through gritted teeth’ (Riikonen 2012). Van der San (2011) claims that Nickelback is ‘calculatingly hit-focused’; Ojala accuses them of ‘laughing all the way to the bank’ (2003). Overall, the descriptions imply that the songs are not genuine self-expression written willingly, but instead forced and made for commercial reasons.

Other common criticisms noted by Anttonen include Nickelback being so similar to other bands, one critic calling them "Nirvana-lite", that their music is predictable and not doing anything new or worth note, and that they give off a safe, and even "girly" appeal.  Some critics cited by Anttonen not only criticized the band, but its fans, summing them up as, "panicky little girls, tough guys in print T-shirts and leather jackets bought from supermarkets, sturdy and bald men, and preteens with their parents."

Lastly, Nickelback's own success has worked against them in the public eye, with trying to take the tone from the anti-establishment grunge and metal of the 80s and 90s, but taking it straight into the establishment with mainstream success and appeal, which ultimately kills the band's sincerity.  According to Anttonen,

Nickelback is too much of everything to be enough of something. They follow genre expectations too well, which is seen as empty imitation, but also not well enough, which is read as commercial tactics and as a lack of a stable and sincere identity.

via Mental Floss