Nickleback(sic) are an uninspiring and uninspired generic hard-rock band trying to look alternative that turned up just [as] everyone was getting completely sick of generic uninspiring and uninspired hard-rock bands trying to look alternative. As such, they copped a lot of flak that should really have been directed at certain earlier bands. That said, they only got the attention they received because of the work of certain earlier bands at making uninspired generic hard rock trying to look alternative sounding marketable.
They are Nickleback. That is their crime. It is also their punishment. The defence rests.
They are Nickleback. That is their crime. It is also their punishment. The defence rests.
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.
[...]
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.
[...]
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.
Deadpool: Alright, I'm done. I've had it with all this Nickelback hating, all right? You think that makes you cool with the cool kids in school, Fred?
Fred Savage: No, it just makes me right.
Deadpool: It doesn't.
Fred Savage: They're overproduced, formulaic ear-garbage.
Deadpool: Oh really? You know who might disagree with that? Facts. [Aside Glance] Fifty million album sales worldwide, 11th best-selling musical act of all time, Billboard's most successful rock group over the last decade, six Grammy nominations, and 12 Juno Awards — those count — six Billboard Music Awards, two American Music Awards, one People's Choice Award, Canadian and a partridge in a f***ing pear tree.
Fred Savage: No, it just makes me right.
Deadpool: It doesn't.
Fred Savage: They're overproduced, formulaic ear-garbage.
Deadpool: Oh really? You know who might disagree with that? Facts. [Aside Glance] Fifty million album sales worldwide, 11th best-selling musical act of all time, Billboard's most successful rock group over the last decade, six Grammy nominations, and 12 Juno Awards — those count — six Billboard Music Awards, two American Music Awards, one People's Choice Award, Canadian and a partridge in a f***ing pear tree.
