Again you either love'em or hate'em.
Funny how a band gets so many haters when they are big. They outsell almost everyone album after album after album. Yep this is the kind of guy that needs to be fired. Lets go get ourselves a sh*tty manager that will help us sell less. Actually they know more about good business then most of us here. They learned it the hard way and are quite successful at it.
It's not about hating on them because they got "big". Props to them for making millions, they get the business end of it and they're capitalizing on it. From a pure music standpoint, lost of bands like this hit it big and then never grow or expand as musicians because they're afraid of losing that paycheck. Can't say I blame them, but don't blame the "haters" because they're sick of recycled overcommercialized "new rock" that all sounds the same. People buy it because they don't expand their horizons into other areas beyond what the commercial radio stations tell them to listen to. The masses have no idea there is more music out there beyond what they're force-fed.
It doesn't have to be this way though. Look at Pearl Jam. Arguably one of the biggest and most successful bands of all times. Success on a level 99% of other bands (including he Nicklebacks and Metallicas that are seemingly "mega-bands") out there don't even know exists. Every one of their albums sounds different. They show growth. They show experimentation and talent. They don't sound like they're written following a recipe for record sales. The vast majority of their music isn't even played on the radio because of this. And yet, they sell out massive arenas night after night to dedicated die-hard fans who know the lyrics to every song even before the album is ever sold. The sell more records than most artists could ever fathom.
My point is sooner or later the record industry is going to wake up and realize that fostering true talent and selling records aren't mutually exclusive. For every Nickleback there are a thousand musicians who are exponentially more talented and creative, making far better music, but for now they'll never see the light of day because of the almightly dollar.
My point is, regardless of whether you like bands like Nickleback, people should seek out music that's not played on the corporate radio stations. It's enormously enlightening.
