# Nickelback
Nickelback is a Canadian rock band from Alberta that became one of the internet's favorite punching bags in the late 2000s and 2010s, spawning countless jokes, image macros, and a full-blown prank format called Nickelbacking. Despite selling over 30 million records worldwide, the band turned into shorthand for bad taste online, spawning one of the longest-running running jokes in music internet history.
## Origin
Nickelback was formed in 1995 in Hanna, Alberta by Chad Kroeger, Ryan Peake, Mike Kroeger and Brandon Kroeger, with the band name coming from Mike Kroeger's Starbucks catchphrase "Here's your nickel back" while handing change to customers[1]. Their 2001 single "How You Remind Me" from the album Silver Side Up hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and kicked off a decade of arena-rock hits and Spider-Man soundtrack tie-ins that totaled roughly 30 million albums sold worldwide[4].
The mockery brewed for years in music-critic circles before hitting internet-meme scale. A Montreal Gazette piece looking back on the band's rise noted that even Chad Kroeger himself was aware of the reputation, asking a rock critic in 2002, "You're a rock critic? Aren't you supposed to hate us?" while sharing shots after a packed Metropolis show[4]. The image-macro era that eventually spawned the KYM entry grew out of that pre-existing critical hostility crossing over into casual online joke fodder[1].
- **Platform:** Tumblr / Reddit (viral spread)
- **Creator:** Unknown
- **Date:** 2011
## Overview
The Nickelback meme is the collective online tradition of ragging on the Alberta rock band as shorthand for bad music taste, with the joke stretching from image macros to a dedicated prank format called Nickelbacking[3]. The band, fronted by Chad Kroeger, sits at the center of a hate meme so persistent that Music-based dating site Tastebuds.fm crowned them the single biggest musical turnoff on the internet, beating out Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga and Coldplay in a 2013 user poll[2].
Most of the humor works by treating Nickelback as a self-evidently terrible experience the listener is being subjected to against their will. Urban Dictionary entries describe the band as sounding like "white noise torture at Guantanamo Bay" and mock lead singer Chad Kroeger's nasal delivery and the accusation that hit singles "How You Remind Me" and "Someday" are essentially the same song played twice[6]. The jokes lean on a shared premise: everyone online agrees the band is bad, which makes any earnest fan a target and any unexpected exposure to their music a punchline[1].
## How It Spread
The meme jumped from background snark into an active online joke format in June 2012, when Mashable writer Christine Erickson clicked a Tumblr link supposedly about "Secret Tumblr Tricks" and got redirected to Nickelback's "Photograph" music video instead[3]. Erickson dubbed the trick "Nickelbacking" and warned readers to plug in their headphones before falling for the same prank, kicking off a wave of copycat redirect links across Tumblr[3].
The Daily Dot picked up the story the same week and framed Nickelbacking as the heir apparent to Rickrolling, calling it "a meme so cruel that anybody with half a soul wouldn't wish it on their most hated Canadian power ballad quartet"[5]. "Photograph," the 2005 single with the famous opening line "Look at this photograph, every time I do it makes me laugh," became the payload of choice because the lyrics themselves had already been endlessly meme'd on their own[5].
The hate spilled off the internet in 2016 when Detroit Lions fans launched a Change.org petition demanding the team replace Nickelback as the Thanksgiving halftime show, arguing that Detroit had produced too many great musicians for the city to be nationally associated with the Canadian band[7]. The petition's opening line, "Does anyone even like Nickelback?", became a widely shared snapshot of the general online sentiment[7]. That same year, the dating site Tastebuds.fm poll placing Nickelback as the number-one musical turnoff was picked up by NME and gave the joke fresh mainstream press[2].
## How to Use
Nickelbacking typically follows the Rickroll blueprint: a link is disguised as something the target actually wants to click, such as an article, tutorial, or download, but the URL secretly redirects to the YouTube page for "Photograph"[3]. Image macros in the same family often pair a photo of Chad Kroeger or the band with the "Look at this photograph" opening line, or use the lyric as a caption for any picture that has no business being shared. The joke works only if the target recognizes the song within the first few seconds, which is why "Photograph" is used far more often than any other Nickelback single[5].
## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is Nickelback?
Nickelback is a Canadian rock band from Alberta whose critical reputation turned them into one of the internet's most durable hate memes and the target of the Nickelbacking prank format[1].
### Where did Nickelback come from?
The band formed in 1995 in Alberta, Canada, with a name inspired by bassist Mike Kroeger's Starbucks catchphrase, "Here's your nickel back"[1].
### What does Nickelback mean?
As a meme, "Nickelback" is shorthand for objectively bad music that everyone online has agreed to make fun of, regardless of the band's commercial success[6].
### How do you use Nickelback?
The most common format is Nickelbacking, disguising a link so that clicking it redirects the target to the YouTube video for "Photograph" instead of the promised content[3].
### Is Nickelback still popular?
The band sold roughly 30 million albums worldwide and stayed a fixture of rock radio, while the mocking meme culture around them became a classic internet running joke[4].
### Why does the internet hate Nickelback?
Urban Dictionary and critics accused the band of formulaic songwriting, with commenters pointing out that "How You Remind Me" and "Someday" sound nearly identical when played simultaneously[6].
### What is Nickelbacking?
Nickelbacking is a bait-and-switch prank where a link that looks legitimate secretly redirects to Nickelback's "Photograph" music video, first documented by Mashable in June 2012[3].
### Why is "Photograph" the Nickelbacking song?
"Photograph" opens with the widely mocked line "Look at this photograph, every time I do it makes me laugh" and is recognizable within seconds, which is why pranksters prefer it over other Nickelback tracks[5].
### Did Nickelback ever get voted the worst band on the internet?
A 2013 Tastebuds.fm poll ranked Nickelback the number-one musical turnoff, beating Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Ke$ha and Coldplay[2].
### What happened with the Detroit Lions halftime show?
In 2016 a Change.org petition asked the Detroit Lions to replace Nickelback as their Thanksgiving halftime act, arguing the city shouldn't be nationally linked to the band[7].
### Was Chad Kroeger aware of the hate?
A Montreal Gazette piece recounts Chad Kroeger asking a rock critic in 2002, "You're a rock critic? Aren't you supposed to hate us?" showing the band was aware of the reputation long before it became a full meme[4].
## References
1. [https://mashable.com/2012/06/05/nickelbacking/]()
2. [https://www.nme.com/news/music/nickelback-24-1281190]()
3. [https://www.dailydot.com/upstream/nickelbacking-rickroll-trick-photograph/]()
4. [https://web.archive.org/web/20150703061555/http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/Nickelback+world+most+hated+band/2757349/story.html]()
5. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/people/nickelback]()
6. [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Nickelback]()
7. [https://www.change.org/p/the-detroit-lions-replace-nickelback-as-the-halftime-show-for-the-thanksgiving-game]()
8. [https://web.archive.org/web/20130314003649/http://www.modernprimate.com/explaining-the-internets-hatred-for-nickelback-to-my-step-dad/]()
9. [https://tastebuds.fm/]()
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Source: https://meme.com/memes/nickelback
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