Recently, I read an article about a study that set out to find the reason Nickelback is so hated in today’s culture. The study says that Nickelback’s music “lacks any artistic value.” I would tend to agree, but I want to dedicate a whole post about why Nickelback is an abomination to the music industry.
First, I do have to restate the obvious: Chad Kroeger’s voice is utterly terrible. There’s no other way to say it. Every time I hear Chad Kroeger sing, I feel an immediate urge to leave the room. It’s this sort of raspy, harsh sound that I really can’t find a comparison point for because nobody sings quite like Chad Kroeger. Guys like Chris Daughtry and Rob Thomas have voices that are too pleasant. The closest comparison I can make is Darius Rucker back during the days of Hootie & the Blowfish, but we all know Nickelback is much worse than Hootie & the Blowfish. Chad Kroeger has this sort of semi-human tone to his voice that is just too crude sounding. The best example I can give you is “Far Away,” a song in which his vocals are hideous. Chad Kroeger’s harsh, awful-sounding vocals have no way of showing sincerity, therefore all of his lyrics sound like outright lies.
I wish Chad Kroeger’s voice was the end of the problem with Nickelback. Then I could conclude that they were an okay band with a bad frontman, but the list goes on.
Rock music should build up. Great rock music has a sense of underlying build up the whole time until it finally explodes. Even Kelly Clarkson understands this. Nickelback never understood this. For example, look at their song “Rockstar.” In “Rockstar,” there’s no sense of build up. Right before the chorus, the instrumentation just falls out and Chad Kroeger starts screaming. Then the instrumentation comes back in at the same level it was at before. Now to properly illustrate what build up should sound like, I’ll compare Nickelback to Savages, a British post-punk act. Savages released a new album this year, and on that album was “Adore.” “Adore” has a sense of build up the whole time as the drums and haunting bass-line just build under Jehnny Beth’s vocals until finally it explodes into the climax. Obviously, Nickelback was not trying to sound like anything similar to Savages in anyway, but Savages is just the best example of how rock music should sound.
Now, if those were the only two issues I had with this band, I’d tell you Chad Kroeger was a bad singer and they weren’t a very cohesive rock band. But I’m not done.
There’s a spectrum when it comes to writing lyrics. One extreme on the spectrum is just as toxic as the other. I don’t want to drink bleach but I’m also not about to go drink a gallon of sulfuric acid, if you get what I’m saying. And although I don’t appreciate the pandering vague nature of Rachel Platten’s “Fight Song” per se, that doesn’t mean overly specific strange lyrics will appeal to me. And yes, it’s time for me to talk about the famous one. For this example, I will use “Photograph.” The message behind “Photograph” seems pretty by the numbers by itself. Basically, it’s saying that memories from the past can make you feel things. But the writers behind this song had no idea how to portray this. Right from the beginning you get a lyric as head-scratching as “And what the hell is on Joey’s head?” When Nickelback includes a lyric like this that has nothing to do with the actual point, it isolates the listeners and takes them out of the narrative. A song about the struggle of saying goodbye to a period of time just became about a very specific moment that nobody can relate to. “Fight Song” may have included very nonspecific phrases to ensure its appeal to everyone listening, but at least it didn’t cut everyone out of its own narrative. If you don’t know Joey and you’ve never seen the photograph in mention, “Photograph” isolates you from it’s own story, and that’s just a huge flaw in its songwriting. There’s a way to avoid this. If he had described the picture or introduced Joey beforehand, then it would’ve been fine. For instance, in Barry Manilow’s “Copacabana,” it gives you some exposition and some context before it tries to make you feel emotion. You know that Lola and Tony are in love before Rico shoots Tony. It doesn’t just put you in the situation and try to have you relate to how distraught Lola feels. However, in “Photograph,” all we know is there’s something on Joey’s head. We cannot connect to this because Nickelback doesn’t frame it properly.
If those were the only problems, I would chalk up the Nickelback hatred to Chad Kroeger’s inability to carry a tune, their music’s lack of understanding of the concept of build up and the awful lyrics their songs contained. But alas, we’re not done quite yet.
A great band continues to reinvent themselves and puts out a variety of different songs. For instance, in 1979, Blondie released “Heart of Glass” as a single. It’s a sort of disco new-wave type song very characteristic of the late-1970s. By 1999, they weren’t making anything like that. Instead, they released “Maria,” a pop/alt-rock fusion track that completely changed their sound. Blondie’s subject matter also shifted radically from song to song, even if you just look at “Call Me” and “The Tide Is High,” two songs from the same year, 1980. Nickelback consistently copied their own sound and subject-matter, though, pretty blatantly throughout their career. For instance, one of their first hits, “How You Remind Me” bared much resemblance to one of their later hits, “Someday.” In fact, if you play these songs at the same time, you realize this. But even more striking is how they recycled their own subject matter. In 2009, Nickelback released “If Today Was Your Last Day.” In 2014, they released “What Are You Waiting For?” Both songs are about not waiting to do something you feel like you need to do. While they aren’t exactly the same in subject matter, they both follow the same theme and could be explained in the same way. That should never happen. Following my Blondie example, “Call Me” is about a woman pledging to be there whenever the listener needs love, whereas “The Tide Is High” is about a woman who continues to pursue a relationship despite a force seemingly pushing against it. Both songs are about love, but Blondie radically reinvented their feelings towards the subject in a way Nickelback was unable to.
If you are a “Nickelback apologist” or even consider yourself a fan, that’s wonderful. Keep enjoying what you enjoy. This is just my opinion on why Nickelback is looked at negatively in general.
Thanks for reading this very special episode! I will be back soon with a review of a new release and a Top Ten Discussion! Thanks!
Wait… Is our next number 1 going to be “Panda?” That’s right, “Panda” by Desiigner has climbed all the way up to number 2, now the closest thing to Rihanna and Drake’s “Work” still at number 1. The songs I predicted would get there, “7 Years” by Lukas Graham and “No” by Meghan Trainor are at number 3 and number 4 respectively. That means the song that may finally break “Work’s” streak at number 1 is “Panda” which is better than “No,” but not than “7 Years.” We do have a re-entry in this week’s top 10. After not appearing in the last two top 10s, “Cake By The Ocean” climbed back up to number 9, pushing out “My House” by Flo Rida. This means “Me, Myself & I” by G-Eazy and Bebe Rexha is still miraculously holding onto that number 10 spot. “Love Yourself” by Justin Bieber fell to number 8 this week, but broke the record for most weeks in the top 10 since a song’s debut at 22 straight weeks. Also falling this week was “Pillowtalk” by Zayn down to number 5. However, continuing its climb up the charts is Mike Posner’s “I Took a Pill in Ibiza,” which is at number 6 this week. That means our final song in the top 10 this week is “Work From Home” by Fifth Harmony and Ty Dolla $ign, climbing two spots up to its new peak at number 7. If I were to rank yet another abysmal top ten, in my opinion, I’d have:
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