The history of Nickelback being labelled as the punching bags of rock music is a well-documented one, but no one has come forward with a definitive answer as to why that is. Now, a student at the University of Eastern Finland recently put together a study in an effort to find out.
Salli Anttonen's paper, titled "Hypocritical Bullshit Performed Through Gritted Teeth: Authenticity Discourses in Nickelback's Album Reviews in Finnish Media," analyzed Finnish reviews of the band from 2000 through 2014. It found that as the band's popularity rose, critiques of their work became harsher.
"It became a phenomenon where the journalists were using the same (reasons) to bash them, and almost making an art out of ridiculing them," Anttonen said. "Nickelback is too much of everything to be enough of something. They follow genre expectations too well, which is seen as empty imitation, but also not well enough, which is read as commercial tactics and as a lack of a stable and sincere identity."
Though the study only looked at Finnish press for the band, the distaste for the group's music has also been made known by Australians, Americans and Londoners.
Salli Anttonen's paper, titled "Hypocritical Bullshit Performed Through Gritted Teeth: Authenticity Discourses in Nickelback's Album Reviews in Finnish Media," analyzed Finnish reviews of the band from 2000 through 2014. It found that as the band's popularity rose, critiques of their work became harsher.
"It became a phenomenon where the journalists were using the same (reasons) to bash them, and almost making an art out of ridiculing them," Anttonen said. "Nickelback is too much of everything to be enough of something. They follow genre expectations too well, which is seen as empty imitation, but also not well enough, which is read as commercial tactics and as a lack of a stable and sincere identity."
Though the study only looked at Finnish press for the band, the distaste for the group's music has also been made known by Australians, Americans and Londoners.
