10 Rock Bands People Love To Hate

There are dozens of potential contenders who could have featured on this list, but none of them can hold a candle to the avalanche of hate and criticism received by Canadian rock band Nickelback. The group formed in 1995, initially building a reputation as a promising post grunge band through releases such as ‘Curb’ and ‘The State’. Even though both these albums enjoyed relative success, it was the band’s third album ‘Silver Side Up’ (2001) which made them the international megastars they are today.

Nickelback have been at the brunt of an uncountable volume of jokes over the years, with people joking about their sound, style, radio friendly nature and arguably cheesy personas. The peak of this was a 2014 crowdfunding campaign called ‘Don’t Let Nickel Back’, which attempted to stop Nickelback from ever returning to the UK. However, the campaign only managed to raise £62 ($76) and the vendetta against the band was channelled into other areas. In 2002, lead singer Chad Kroeger was voted the ‘Ugliest Person in Rock and Roll’ in an online poll, remaining the subject of several memes to this day.

Nickelback have managed to sell over 50 million albums worldwide which makes them more commercially successful than the likes of Rush, Slayer, Motorhead, Blue Oyster Cult, Skid Row, Megadeth, Slipknot and Avenged Sevenfold to name but a few. Not to mention, they have also managed to put out five chart topping albums (in Canada) and 22 singles which have reached the top 10 in various charts across the world, including eight number 1’s in the US Mainstream Rock chart. But of course, nobody likes Nickelback.