Nickelback is one of the most criticized bands in popular music. At various points in their career, Nickelback has received widespread negative reviews from various sources. Review aggregator Metacritic reports that three of their six most recent studio albums since becoming a mainstream act, The Long Road, All the Right Reasons and Dark Horse, have scores of 62%, 41% and 49% respectively.
They have, at times, been ridiculed for their lack of originality. In 2001, Rolling Stone criticised the band's musical style, saying, "If you're looking for originality, you might want a full refund instead of a Nickelback." Rolling Stone also said their 2003 release, The Long Road, was "[b]razenly consistent, if unimaginative", while Allmusic also stated, "Nickelback can now afford a little more time in the studio and a little more time to indulge themselves, and they turn out the same record, only slicker, which only highlights just how oppressively and needlessly sullen this group is." Harmonix, developer of the video game Rock Band, gave its Rock Band Network the internal codename "Rock Band: Nickelback", "on the theory that the name of the quintessentially generic modern rock group would be enough to deflect all curiosity" according to The New York Times.
In 2005, Rolling Stone said "All the Right Reasons is so depressing, you're almost glad Kurt [Cobain]'s not around to hear it."[19] Tiny Mix Tapes also expressed concern over the release; "Like all Nickelback releases before it, All The Right Reasons was made for all the wrong ones and follows all the formulas and clichés you should be bored to death of by now." Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic reviewed Dark Horse, claiming that "Nickelback are a gnarled, vulgar band reveling in their ignorance of the very notion of taste, lacking either the smarts or savvy to wallow in bad taste so they just get ugly, knocking out knuckle-dragging riffs that seem rarefied in comparison to their thick, boneheaded words."
In 2007, USA Today reported that "few bands inspire such intense hatred as Nickelback."The article questioned whether Nickelback's commercial success made "critics wrong", and published several statements from various sources within the music industry. Nathan Brackett, a senior editor at Rolling Stone said, "There are some bands that, let's face it, are critic-proof." Both Brackett and Craig Marks, editor in chief of Blender, credit a lot of the band's success to young people who are introduced to them on the radio and "very casual music fans who don't buy a lot of CDs". Marks complimented Nickelback's popularity despite the critical response, saying "it is a tribute to their success."
Despite a barrage of criticism, Nickelback has still managed to please some reviewers with each of their mainstream albums. Allmusic reviewer Liana Jones complimented Nickelback after their commercial breakthrough, Silver Side Up; "what gives the group an upper hand over its peers is intensity and raw passion... Nickelback ups the ante by offering realistic storytelling that listeners can relate to." Following their 2008 album, Dark Horse, ChartAttack credited the band's success to knowing their target audience: "Chad Kroeger is a genius because he knows exactly what people want and precisely how far he can go. He turned out an extremely racy album that's loaded with songs about gettin' drunk and doin' it all without breaking any taboos, and with enough love and moral authority to grease its passage into the mainstream. Rejoice, North America. This is your world."Billboard also praised the band: "The bulletproof Nickelback provides affordable fun that promises good returns in hard times."
In 2009, The Word magazine readers voted Nickelback "Worst Band In The World", receiving 19.8% of the vote.
In 2010, a Facebook group entitled "Can this pickle get more fans than Nickleback?" [sic] numbered slightly more than 1.4 million Facebook fans, succeeding in getting more fans on Facebook than the band's official group
Jam! Canoe columnist Darryl Sterdan named lead singer Chad Kroeger the second worst singer of all time saying: "Nickelback's frontman may not have invented that post-grunge moose-in-heat bellow he relies on, but nobody does it better than he does. And by better, I mean worse".
They have, at times, been ridiculed for their lack of originality. In 2001, Rolling Stone criticised the band's musical style, saying, "If you're looking for originality, you might want a full refund instead of a Nickelback." Rolling Stone also said their 2003 release, The Long Road, was "[b]razenly consistent, if unimaginative", while Allmusic also stated, "Nickelback can now afford a little more time in the studio and a little more time to indulge themselves, and they turn out the same record, only slicker, which only highlights just how oppressively and needlessly sullen this group is." Harmonix, developer of the video game Rock Band, gave its Rock Band Network the internal codename "Rock Band: Nickelback", "on the theory that the name of the quintessentially generic modern rock group would be enough to deflect all curiosity" according to The New York Times.
In 2005, Rolling Stone said "All the Right Reasons is so depressing, you're almost glad Kurt [Cobain]'s not around to hear it."[19] Tiny Mix Tapes also expressed concern over the release; "Like all Nickelback releases before it, All The Right Reasons was made for all the wrong ones and follows all the formulas and clichés you should be bored to death of by now." Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic reviewed Dark Horse, claiming that "Nickelback are a gnarled, vulgar band reveling in their ignorance of the very notion of taste, lacking either the smarts or savvy to wallow in bad taste so they just get ugly, knocking out knuckle-dragging riffs that seem rarefied in comparison to their thick, boneheaded words."
In 2007, USA Today reported that "few bands inspire such intense hatred as Nickelback."The article questioned whether Nickelback's commercial success made "critics wrong", and published several statements from various sources within the music industry. Nathan Brackett, a senior editor at Rolling Stone said, "There are some bands that, let's face it, are critic-proof." Both Brackett and Craig Marks, editor in chief of Blender, credit a lot of the band's success to young people who are introduced to them on the radio and "very casual music fans who don't buy a lot of CDs". Marks complimented Nickelback's popularity despite the critical response, saying "it is a tribute to their success."
Despite a barrage of criticism, Nickelback has still managed to please some reviewers with each of their mainstream albums. Allmusic reviewer Liana Jones complimented Nickelback after their commercial breakthrough, Silver Side Up; "what gives the group an upper hand over its peers is intensity and raw passion... Nickelback ups the ante by offering realistic storytelling that listeners can relate to." Following their 2008 album, Dark Horse, ChartAttack credited the band's success to knowing their target audience: "Chad Kroeger is a genius because he knows exactly what people want and precisely how far he can go. He turned out an extremely racy album that's loaded with songs about gettin' drunk and doin' it all without breaking any taboos, and with enough love and moral authority to grease its passage into the mainstream. Rejoice, North America. This is your world."Billboard also praised the band: "The bulletproof Nickelback provides affordable fun that promises good returns in hard times."
In 2009, The Word magazine readers voted Nickelback "Worst Band In The World", receiving 19.8% of the vote.
In 2010, a Facebook group entitled "Can this pickle get more fans than Nickleback?" [sic] numbered slightly more than 1.4 million Facebook fans, succeeding in getting more fans on Facebook than the band's official group
Jam! Canoe columnist Darryl Sterdan named lead singer Chad Kroeger the second worst singer of all time saying: "Nickelback's frontman may not have invented that post-grunge moose-in-heat bellow he relies on, but nobody does it better than he does. And by better, I mean worse".
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