Maybe it’s just me, but sometimes I wonder what it’s like to be hated, disliked, or even universally panned, as a music artist. What goes through a bands’ mind (or a solo artist for that matter) if a lot of the publicity is negative, a lot of the reviews of their albums are negative, and just the vibe of the critics towards this artist/group is negative, full stop…can an artist/band still be impactful, influential, and the rest of it, in spite of that? Yes, if you’re reading between the lines here, and you’ve read the title of this blog, then you’d know which artist I’m about to delve into today. You guessed it, it’s about time, after 78 blogs, to tackle Nickelback as blog #79. And I know, it’s probably a long time coming for me to say my two cents worth about Chad Kroger and co. but here I am, around a couple of years after my first blog to talk about a band that quite possibly, alongside Creed (I dunno why though) are two of the most ‘hated’ bands of all time…ever. And what do I do with that information though- do I let this piece of knowledge (reliable or not), bias my own opinions of the band, and thus, sway this blog post altogether? Or should I just write about the band regardless, and form my own opinion, nevertheless? Nickelback have been singing and making music for quite some time- over 20 years in fact. Chad’s distinct voice and gravely texture to it, makes the band one of the most unique in modern music history- and maybe it’s because of this uniqueness that it seems like Nickelback’s talent, can be viewed by the public as fading away, in place of a band’s ‘brand’, for lack of a better term. Whatever the case of how the band got to be known by the public as one of the most hated bands (maybe not only in America but around the world too), what we know now is this- that Nickelback are hated for some reason, and that I was hesitant in writing this blog post, until now, of course. I mean, what do you write when you’re tackling a band that is unfortunately, universally disliked? Do you write anything? Nothing? Write, but then realise that you’re writing about something else entirely? Nickelback are indeed so much more than just a band to be ‘hated’, and as I’ve listened to them this past week and a bit, I’ve grown to appreciate Chad’s singing style, and writing style. This is a band that has soldiered on in spite of popular opinion; and have continued to weather the proverbial ‘storm’ which is their music career thus far. For a band to last this long in the music industry, let alone last this long in the music industry with a lot of ‘hate’, dislike, shade, and generalised panning, is nothing short of a miracle. It really is. Kudos and credit to Chad and the band for continuing to press on through these bouts of adversity, because if such hurling of insults happened to any other band, I’m not sure how they’d react. I mean, lets be honest right here. I’m not your average rock and roll fan. I like the odd occasional band here and there (Lifehouse, the Goo Goo Dolls, Daughtry, Skillet, and now to some extent Creed), but I’m not into your heavy rock that Nickelback seems to ‘flirt’ with on occasion throughout their discography that I’ve listened to, this past week or so. Hearing them is like the mixing of radio friendly rock and the hardness of a band like Hoobastank or Evanescence (I mean, both Hoobastank and Evanescence are fine, it’s just that both these bands aren’t necessarily my go-to if I want to hear rock music). And that’s interesting and weird at the same time. And maybe it’s just the confusion that surrounds the band’s definite musical genre (Is it hard rock? Is it radio friendly rock?), or maybe it’s because of how Chad Kroger’s actual singing voice can seem a little jarring if you hear Nickelback on repeat for more than 30 minutes at a time. Needless to say, in spite of my own hesitation to announce the band as one of my favourites (rather, it’d be a band that I would thoroughly respect at the end of the day, but won’t necessarily seek them out later on for my general listening pleasure), Nickelback continue to sell, and for a band to be in 2021, still musically active…well, they must be doing something right, right?

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