Music

Avril Lavigne still stands up for her ex husband's band, Nickelback

by Dan MacRae

Nickelback are the ultimate popular music conundrum. They’re a band despised by critics, presented as a default “music that sucks” punchline and used in polls to show how loathed Donald Trump is. 

Among certain demographics, “admitting” you like Nickelback is like detailing how you jerk off to Ratatouille pics on Deviant Art. These guys get perpetually shit on and now Avril Lavigne is attempting to open an umbrella to block some of that mass cultural dumping.

Lavigne, who separated from Nickelback frontman/sometimes collaborator Chad Kroeger in 2015, came storming up on Twitter to defend the surprisingly resilient hoser-rockers. Taking issue with E! News covering the whole Trump vs. Nickelback hatred index story, Avril (a.k.a. Heather the opossum from Over the Hedge) fought back, pointing to the massive popularity associated with the FM radio staples.

As many a crappy poster found in a guidance counselor’s office has taught us, popularity doesn’t always justify things, but Avril’s not too far off the mark. Nickelback aren’t great (our words, not hers), but they make a lot of people happy, rarely interfere in your day-to-day life (when’s the last time #Nickelback made Twitter impossible to deal with?), and occasionally give us a goofy-ass video where Jason Alexander plays duelling baristas as Chad wails like the rawk pro that he is.

In conclusion: Mocking Nickelback is still A-OK, but maybe we could stand to have a little more variety in our punching bags?

[h/t Digital Spy]