The Green Bay Packers are playing the Detroit Lions on November 24th – which is the Thanksgiving holiday in America – and Nickelback are scheduled to perform a set as part of the halftime entertainment. You’re probably thinking what I’m thinking right? Perfect, the dumbest band in America can play to arguably the dumbest people in America – those attending an NFL game in Detroit what! Actually maybe that’s a little harsh on those people from Detroit as people in the south are probably dumber, but Detroit is definitely NOT a cool or smart city.
But anyway, that’s going off topic. The point is that you would be completely WRONG if you agreed with what I was thinking, which let’s face it you were. Although the headline might have swayed you against it. So yeah, the fans of the Detroit Lions are so angry about the scheduled appearance of Nickelback that they’ve started an online petition begging the organisers of the game to cancel the performance. They argue that the appearance of Nickelback insults Detroit’s musical legacy.
‘Sure,’ I hear everyone sigh, ‘Detroit’s musical legacy, you guys just don’t want Nickelback to play, you don’t have to make up some crap about Detroit’s musical legacy.’ That’s what I said too, but it turns out a surprisingly long list of famous yet mostly terrible musicians have emerged from the asshole that is Detroit over the years: Bill Haley, Del Shannon, Alice Cooper, Iggy Pop, Eminem, Stevie Wonder, Bob Seger, The White Stripes, Kid Rock and of course THE INSANE CLOWN POSSE. I bet all those Detroit Juggalos would have been much happier if ICP had been playing the halftime show.
The funniest thing about this isn’t ‘Detroit’s musical legacy’ though, it’s the statement that accompanied the online petition. Here it is:
“This game is nationally televised, do we really want the rest of the US to associate Detroit with Nickelback? Detroit is home to so many great musicians and they chose Nickelback?!?!?! Does anyone even like Nickelback? Is this some sort of ploy to get people to leave their seats during halftime to spend money on alcoholic beverages and concessions? This is completely unfair to those of us who purchased tickets to the game. At least the people watching at home can mute their TVs. The Lions ought to think about their fans before choosing such an awful band to play at halftime.”
I mean the guy has a point, I’m not gonna lie. I sure as hell wouldn’t want Birmingham associated with Nickelback. This petition does raise on interesting question though: If NFL fans i.e. the typical American don’t like Nickelback then who the hell does and how are they one of the biggest rock bands of the 21st century?!
If you want to sign the petition you can do so HERE. Some of the comments on it are gold. For example: Nickelback is to music what Hitler was to European Jews. End of story.
