The Canadian rock band Nickelback is almost universally despised for making lame radio rock that appeals to people with tribal tattoos. Yet they’re still absurdly popular, selling 50 million albums over the course of their career.
Only recently has mankind determine why people actually hate Nickelback. A researcher at the University of Eastern Finland attempted just that in a study called “Hypocritical Bullshit Performed Through Gritted Teeth: Authenticity Discourses in Nickelback’s Album Reviews in Finnish Media.”
The main finding is that they “lack a sincere identity,” according to the research, Salli Anttonen:
“Nickelback is too much of everything to be enough of something…They follow genre expectations too well which is seen as empty imitation.”
Then again, you don’t really need a “study” to determine what most people in the world already know: