Being regarded as the worst band in history is a joke that has Nickelback laughing all the way to the bank. Since their debut on the airwaves in 1996, they’ve sold over 50 million albums. That’s ten million more than Steely Dan and Oasis combined. It’s nearly five times Talking Heads’ total. And they’ve even earned a diamond certification for their 2017 album, All the Right Reasons. It sold over 11 million copies. Strangely, and somewhat thankfully, I have not met a single person who has purchased a copy.
Alas, the figures show that Nickelback fans are out there in droves. And it appears that they are blissfully unaware that the band they love is. However, the rest of the world does not consider this oddity in terms similar to those of scabies. Many bands have experienced a situation where a silent majority loves them while they are simultaneously loathed by those seemingly more engaged in the cultural discussion.
Def Leppard was once dubbed the “schmucks of the music world” despite earning platinum records and selling out stadiums. When they met backstage a few years ago, they were amusingly delighted to pass on the press-tarnished burden to their Canadian counterparts.
“We presented to Def Leppard,” Chad Kroeger told Blabbermouth. “And when we walked backstage afterward, Joe Elliott and Phil Collen turned to me and were like, ‘Dude, thank you so much’. I am like, ‘For what?’ They were like, “For taking the trophy.” We get to pass the baton to you as the world’s most hated band now. And I was like, ‘Oh, yeah. I want that.'” Nevertheless, Kroeger could take stock of the fact that it didn’t do Def Leppard much harm. As it happens, the glam rockers from Sheffield are undergoing a bit of a hipster reappraisal by a coterie of post-ironic youth today.
One can say the same about AC/DC, one of the best-selling acts of all time. They were once tarnished with a bad reputation. “It’s funny — we went for dinner with AC/DC in Chicago years and years and years ago,” Kroeger said. “And this whole situation came up. Brian Johnson also stated that when they released ‘Back In Black’, they were the most despised band on the planet. So I think we’re in good company.
Much of the heat AC/DC was experiencing stemmed from their unfortunate involvement in the Satanic Panic after serial killer Richard Ramirez went on the run wearing one of the band’s branded caps. The fact that a group, that counts itself among the top 20 best-selling artists of all time, was also loathed illustrates the value of hatred. And I mean that in both senses. Crowning a band as the worst inherently holds currency in the ‘any publicity is good publicity’ capacity. But there is also a grain of truth to the fact that popular opinion doesn’t matter once you are popular.
And Nickelback is certainly popular. That extends beyond their relieved contemporaries. Beyond laughing their corny asses to the bank, you must have some level of esteem and quality against which critics can rally. It would be pointless to sift through the millions of bands in the world to find the one that is truly the most heinous outfit in every way. If they are a bunch of Kent kids who play four gigs a year to fifty beleaguered people.
You must have something about yourself that a large number of people believe is valuable for the hatred to stick. In this regard, culture closely resembles politics, where opinions hold more currency than the virtue of veracity. “No one is exempt from that,” Kroeger somewhat hopefully concludes.
