As if our current political climate couldn’t get any weirder, Nickelback has now reached the hallowed halls of Congress.
Last Thursday, the universally-maligned Canadian butt rockers were brought up as part of a jibe by our representative, Mark Pocan. Referring to the unpopularity of a voting rights provision (only four out of 77,000 asked favored it), Pocan quipped that it’s “probably about the percent of people who think Nickelback is their favorite band in this country — it’s pretty low.”
Personally, I love how Pocan says people “think” Nickelback is their favorite band, which to me implies the inherent wrongness of Nickelback actually being anyone’s favorite band. They’re like flop sweat set to music. I spent all of middle school listening almost exclusively to terrible third-wave ska bands, and even I think they suck.
ANYWAY, this being American politics in 2019, the Democrat’s remark couldn’t go without a Republican taking the opposite route.“Why would you criticize one of the greatest bands of the ’90’s?” fired back Illinois’s Rodney Davis in a tone of faux-outrage.
And while I appreciate that both sides of the aisle seem to agree that Nickelback blows major ass, I’d like to chide Rep. Davis for lumping them in with the superior alt-rock bands of the ’90s. They’re a 2000s band; Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam don’t deserve to have their decade sullied by that kind of filth.
Semantics aside, the whole “debate” is pretty funny, and a welcome reprieve from the daily terror usually associated with U.S. politics. I mean, a debate about the band that wrote this song is now in the Congressional Record for all of posterity. As is, alarmingly, Rodney Davis’ subsequent earnest admission to enjoying(!) a Nickelback song on his jogging playlist.
To that, Rep. Pocan offered an olive branch: “I will just wrap by saying I appreciate that very brave admission of your fandom for Nickelback. That’s very brave, and I do recognize that.”
What a bizarre world we live in. Here’s my favorite Nickelback video:
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