NICKELBACK HATERS

So as I'm (sort of) studying for my finals, I happen to make my way onto youtube and iTunes and begin to read the comments about the new Nickelback CD. I try to avoid doing this because there are usually only 2 kinds of reviews- the people who hate Nickelback for all the same reasons or the people that love them but nothing in between. I respect some of the reviews that don't like it, I don't like some bands although I usually don't write hateful reviews. The ones that really bother me though, are the ones that don't give any reasons or just use the same reasons that've been used over and over. Usually when I wear my Nickelback shirt from the fabulous concert I went to, people feel the need to come up to me and lecture me on why Nickelback is a terrible band and they are ruining music. I don't know why people do this, obviously the only people who can make me believe that are the band itself, plus it's incredibly rude. So I'm going to try and disprove the repetivitive reasons that people use to justify their hating of my band. It's not going to make anyone change their minds probably, but it will make me feel better.

1. The number one reason everyone uses is..........all their songs sound the same. I have no idea how many times I've heard or seen this but it's used a lot. First off, it's not a good reason. If Nickelback suddenly changed their sound and sounded different, I probably wouldn't like them. It's true with all bands, you like them because of the particular way they sound and you don't want them to change. If you listen to almost any band out there, there songs will probably sound similar, although not the same. But that's why people listen to them.

The people who say this have also obviously not listened to all their songs, or even one of their albums. There are 3 distinct categories that their songs fall into, which is more than most bands have. The rock songs are usually not played on the radio which is why people dismiss Nickelback as sounding all the same, because they don't bother doing a little research before insulting. About half their album is always rock songs though while the other half is either upbeat but not hard rock songs or the ballads. These are played more on the radio although I can't figure out why people think they sound the same. Especially on this new CD, there is a distinct difference in the types of music they play.

2. Another reason that is frequently used is actually by previous Nickelback fans that "were there from the beginning" but now can't stand the band because all their songs have become "radio friendly". True, Chad's voice isn't as rough as it was in the beginning but since I'm not a huge rock fan, I like them better now. There are lots of people complaining that "they need to restore the balance from hard rock and the ballads". If I look at the list of songs correctly, there are 6 rock songs out of the 11. That seems like balance to me, although maybe I can't do hard math like that since learning trig. But I really don't like when people insult my band with something that isn't true.

And the "radio friendliness"? Because getting your songs played on the radio is terrible. Everyone would rather be in an obsure band with a weird name that is only played on select random websites. No one wants to be a multi platinum award winning band that has millions of fans and currently has the number one album on iTunes beating out Beyonce's. But seriously, a lot of their songs are not exactly something you would hear on the radio. Sure the songs on the radio become big hits but that is because people actually like them. A lot of people say nobody likes Nickelback, "you can't call that crap, music or art". There must be people who like them though because there songs and CDs become popular. But wait, nobody likes bands that everybody likes.