Nickelback, now experiencing an all time career low, got an unexpected boost in popularity this week thanks to Trump inaccurately using the band’s “Photograph” meme, which samples the sextet’s 2005 hit of the same name.
The band’s label, Warner Music Group, stepped in and hit the president with a quick copyright infringement claim, but the band themselves didn’t seem to realize the underlying joke behind it all: that they are similar to Trump in that they gained international fame despite being detested by almost everybody. “People in the meme-generating depths of the Web did not make Nickelback memes because they liked Nickelback. They made Nickelback memes because they did not like Nickelback, and because Nickelback was everywhere anyway,” wrote The Washington Post. “Nickelback didn’t exactly become famous for being famous. It became famous for being famous despite being horrible. That makes Trump the Nickelback president.”
Politics aside, Trump’s antics inspired Popdust to take a deep dive back into Nickelback’s long and distasteful discography. It turns out, the band and our president have more in common than initially reported, such as a misogynistic view of women. Let’s take a look back at some of the band’s most distasteful lyrics, and revisit the question that plagues us all: Why was Nickelback ever a thing?
Figured You Out
“I like your pants around your feetAnd I like the dirt that’s on your kneesAnd I like the way you still say pleaseWhile you’re looking up at me”
Right out the gate we have “Figured You Out,” off of 2003’s The Long Road. The song describes multiple sexual encounters with a woman that “wasn’t that hard to figure out.” “Sometimes you get into a little fling and you think you know the person,” said Chad Kroeger of the song’s meaning, “and the next thing you know, you’re dating a cokehead who’s interwoven into some underground drug world with Hell’s Angels and movie stars and models.” Regardless of that awkward statement, the single’s cover art, which depicts visibly nervous cheerleaders sitting in a row in a locker room, paints an incredibly predatory picture. Chade Kroeger was 29 at the time.
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