Music fans can be a pretty tribalistic bunch. As much as an obsession with a band can cultivate immeasurable acts of dedication and bring people together in beautiful union, it can also totally drive them apart, setting up some huge divisions that can turn people’s tastes into a faction-like war between ‘us’ and ‘them’.
Just think of the ongoing territorial war between ‘mainstream’ and ‘alternative’, the ‘Disco Sucks’ era, or the endless scorn that’s poured upon Bono or Sting.
There just seems to be some musical acts that don’t just polarise music fans but radiate a quality that magnetises hate like moths to the flame and with the growth of the Internet and social media, it’s never been easier to pour out one’s loathing for a musical group (and anonymously to boot) than is in today’s techno-landscape.
For good or bad, Salon is adding its definitive call to the debate by looking over the last three decades of music making and compiling a Top 15 list of the most hated bands of the last 30 years (leaving countless acts from the 80s to breathe a collective sigh of relief).
The distinction between ‘most hated’ and ‘worst’ is kind of blurred and being a US website, there’s an obvious focus on American bands in the list. Along with the usual suspects that make copping flak look like a fine art (take a bow Nickelback, Creed, and Limp Bizkit), there’s some mildly controversial inclusions on the list too. Along with the usual suspects… (take a bow Nickelback, Creed, and Limp Bizkit), there’s some mildly controversial inclusions on the list too.
Pop punk faithfuls will likely have something to say about Blink 182’s inclusion on the list, with Salon noting that while they “began as an attempt to wean tweens off boy bands,” they soon spiralled “into self-parody” and ushered in “an unforgivable era of wannabe-pop-punk rockers like Good Charlotte, Avril Lavigne and Jimmy Eat World.” Ouch.
The doe-eyed Lana Del Rey is the newest act to make the cut, with her few-years-long career still considered one of the most divisive of the last 30 years. “It’s not that [she’s] bad, per se,” reads the Salon entry, “it’s that her music seems fraudulent when compared to the ’60s-era musical acts she’s invoking.” While taking the singer to task for her infamous(ly dull) SNL performance.
Much like the Rolling Stone readers poll that called Nirvana one of the worst bands of the 90s, the Salon Top 15 lists many bands that got their start in the decade, including Smash Mouth (“what would have happened if Limp Bizkit made love to a Lisa Frank poster”), The Goo Goo Dolls (“interchangeable with Matchbox 20”), Train (“basically the Goo Goo Dolls of the next millennium”), and Hootie & The Blowfish (“20 years later and chances are that you can still hear [frontman Darius] Rucker rattling around there in your brain.”)
Black Eyed Peas and Insane Clown Posse get a battering, along with their Juggalo fanbase (“the most obnoxious fans in the world”), so too the cult-like Dave Matthews Band and Phish. John Mayer is dismissed as an “insufferable bro”, while boy band also-rans 98 Degrees also get a mention.
With list capped at just 15 entrants, there’s obviously plenty of bands that have dodged a tarring and no Aussie artists (or any other country) to speak of. But whether your most hated (or worse, your favourite) band make the list, there’s plenty to chew the fat over.
Top 15 Most Hated Bands Of The Last 30 Years
According to Salon
Nickelback
98 Degrees
Smash Mouth
Black Eyed Peas
Insane Clown Posse
Hootie & The Blowfish
The Goo Goo Dolls
John Mayer
Dave Matthews Band
Creed
Train
Phish
Limp Bizkit
Blink 182
Lana Del Rey
