Music News

Admit It, Canada: You Like Nickelback. And Here’s Proof.

If you live (a) in a large urban centre like Toronto; or (b) on either coast of the United States, chances are you hate Nickelback. Or at least you proclaim to.

Nickelback is one of those meat’n’potatoes heartland rock bands that has millions of fans that no critic or musically sophisticated urbanite will ever admit to liking. If so many people hate them, how do you explain these numbers?

Kurt Hansen has run a streaming service called AccuRadio out of Chicago since 2000. In the last fifteen years–roughly the same amount of time Nickelback has been in the public eye–Accuradio has collected a lot of data from its listeners. Drilling down into the numbers, we can discover pockets of Nickelback love across the country.

The province that listens to more Nickelback than any other (at least via AccuRadio) is Ontario. But then you’d expect that since it’s the province with the biggest population. BC comes second with Alberta in third spot. Here’s the full ranking.

Nickelback love

 

Okay, these are admittedly small numbers and there’s no real context to them in terms of over what time they were gathered. Still…

(Via CBC Music)

 

Alan Cross

is an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker. In his 40+ years in the music business, Alan has interviewed the biggest names in rock, from David Bowie and U2 to Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters. He’s also known as a musicologist and documentarian through programs like The Ongoing History of New Music.

Alan Cross has 39159 posts and counting. See all posts by Alan Cross

Let us know what you think!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.