Kroeger was abandoned by his father when he was just two, and raised in semi-poverty by his mother, Debbie, as he amassed a juvenile criminal record that would eventually provide fodder for his lyrics. While his upbringing may not explain why he's so universally loathed, it does offer some insights into his music.
American Idol judge Randy Jackson once scoffed that Kroeger "is like 45 years old and ugly as sin." Even the Winnipeg Sun, a hometown paper-Kroeger was born and raised in Hanna, Alberta, with a population of about 3000-pegged him as a "talentless misogynist," which is among the nicer things a journalist has written about the singer. Nickelback's lead singer and songwriter Chad Kroeger (rhymes with "cougar"), 37, is the most public source of scorn for his band's supposed sins.
#Nickelback album heavier than as i lay dying movie#
There've been convincing arguments that Nickelback's songs all sound the same, but that hasn't stopped them from becoming ubiquitous wedding and movie soundtrack anthems. Their numerous hit songs-''Rockstar,'' "Photograph," and "How You Remind Me," to name just a few-are part of the collective consciousness now. And this from a group that's sold 21 million copies of their last six albums, in an era when the recording industry was purportedly dead or dying. Their seventh studio album, Here And Now, debuted last November at #2 on the Billboard charts. Hating Nickelback has become synonymous with hating Nazis and Jerry Sandusky.Īnd yet somehow the band continues to be wildly popular. And last Thanksgiving, when the band was asked to perform during the halftime show at a Detroit Lions game, a petition to stop them received more than 50,000 signatures. In 2010, a Facebook page called " Can This Pickle Get More Fans Than Nickelback?" managed to do just that before getting shut down. But Nickelback has inspired an especially caustic and creative backlash. It's not uncommon for popular bands to get punished for their popularity everyone from the Beatles to Nirvana have been criticized for selling too many records and having too many fans. The vitriol aimed at Nickelback is remarkable. It might've seemed like an innocuous accusation-Nickelback is a Canadian rock band with huge commercial success, and is widely considered to be awful-but a photo of the sign went viral online, and caused so much controversy that a spokesperson for Emanuel was compelled to publicly deny the mayor's fandom, clearing up any confusion with an email to the media that simply said, "No."
"Rahm Emanuel Likes Nickelback," the sign declared. Last month, during a demonstration by striking public teachers in Chicago, a disgruntled high school math teacher held up a sign that was meant to hit the city's mayor where it hurt.