Today’s Music
I recently became an old man, or at least for a fleeting moment I did. How did I become old and how did it only last but a passing moment? Explanation ahead.
I was flipping through radio stations and there was a song by some artist that I cannot remember, and I was complaining to myself. Jesus Christ this song is terrible. I can’t believe what passes for music these days. Oh God, I said ‘these days’. It was at that moment that I realized I had turned into an old man. Not the kind that shouts at kids walking across his lawn, no. Although that will be definitely be in my future, the seeds have already been planted. Rather, I became an old curmudgeon lamenting today’s music and longing for the days of old. When I was a kid, this kind of stuff would never have been played on the radio! Yeah, that kind. The same kind of old bastard that I swore when I was a kid I would never become. After a brief period of self loathing for having sunk to that low, I came to my senses and started to think about how absolutely heinous some of the music of my youth actually was. To do that I had to dig deep into my musical memory recesses so I could put this current chart topper’s awfulness into perspective.
I quickly compiled a list of bands in my head from back in the old days that churned out audible garbage far worse than this earworm of today. As I was compiling this list, there was one band in particular, that popped into my head as being one of the most universally reviled bands of its generation. Nickelback. Not so because they actually were a bad band, instead they stood out for being hated, just because. They had been a very popular band in their hay day , but then became the most hated band pretty much overnight. The funny part is nobody can give you a straight answer as to why they are so bad. Although most bands fall out of favor with the masses at some point, this one’s drop from popularity was fairly precipitous and fueled by an unexplained vitriol hatred that most artists will never have to experience.
No Different Than Any Other Band
Sorry for the long sordid back story. I will no longer tap dance around the point, but instead get right to the heart of the matter. Is Nickelback really that bad? The answer is no. Or at least, that’s what I feel about it. I reach that conclusion because I have never been given a reasonable explanation as to why people hate them so much. It just seems like it was the fashionable thing to do at the time.
I mean, let’s put this into perspective. I get that they are not everyone’s cup of tea. They’re not mine by any means, but I don’t think they ever really deserved the widespread hatred that they received. By some craven magic, the internet decided in some mindless collective tour de force that they would no longer tolerate the audacity of that band to be likeable, much less make music. They became the source of countless hate filled, yet many of them objectively funny, memes. This all started years ago, and although it has been tamed quite a bit, as most things do over time, the mention of their name will still illicit the same comments all these years later. Why? I don’t get it.
To be honest, I know very little about them, but I’m sure like every band that came out of nowhere they probably worked hard, learned their craft, practiced for countless hours, honed their skills, put in the blood, sweat and tears before they landed their first major record deal and broke into the mainstream. I’ve heard some of their songs over the years on the radio and I was neither impressed but definitely not offended by any of their songs. Certainly not enough to declare them the worst band ever. I can think of others. I’m looking at you Huey Lewis.
So the music isn’t awful, we’ve established that. So what is it? As far as I know I never heard anything too outrageous about the antics of their lives on tour or never read any articles or watched clips of lude behavior, no criminal acts. At least nothing worse than any other big acts of the time. That would have been a good reason to hate them, but that’s just not the case.
The Real Enemy
The only logical conclusion is that they were just unfortunate victims of circumstance. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Someone with at least a modicum of influence decided that Nickelback was terrible and posted that online, and it quickly grew into a major movement in the forums, comment sections of social media. It just became the new viral trend. Everyone got into it. We were all slaves to the mob, blindly following along but never truly knowing why. I admit, I got sucked in a time or two, and laughed along with the jokes, and maybe even shared a meme at some point. We all did. But now it’s time to for us all to come to our senses, think about this logically, and ask ourselves: Is Nickelback really that bad? No, my friends, the answer is no. But you wanna know who is? Fuckin’ Huey Lewis and the News. That’s who!