Shit's old …

With all this talk about the world regressing into the past lately, it’s frightening to really see it happening before our eyes. So far, there have been three high-profile Nickelback jokes in the past few weeks on major media outlets. No need to check, it’s 2017.

The Chainsmokers are the Nickelback of EDM
by Matt Miller // Esquire

A strained think piece gone wrong — it’s almost … like … pop music follows some sort of formula? Predictable, but what else would you expect from Esquire, the Nickelback of magazines.

Is Donald Trump the Nickelback of Politics?
by J. Nick Pitts // Huffington Post

Poor Nick must have slept in when HuffPo was assigning features. “You’re comparing things to Nickelback today, Nick, get here on time tomorrow or go back to Buzzfeed.”

Mark: “Hey, play us some good Nickelback songs.”
Jarvis: “I’m sorry Mark … there are no good Nickelback songs.”
by Mark Zuckerberg // Facebook

A multi-billionaire communications company owner that’s this out of touch with the world? Universal social media fatigue can’t come soon enough.

Shit's getting old.

And yet, it seems these 3 never got the memo. Having sold over 50 million albums, the band is now the 11th best-selling music act in history, the 2nd best selling foreign act in the U.S. (second only to the Beatles) and just signed a massive multi-album deal with BMG, one of the world’s largest music holders. Say whatever makes you sleep better at night, but the numbers, the facts, just simply don’t lie.

But the reality is, this isn't so much about stepping between the bullies and the band as much as it is the unfortunate fallout of media trying too hard to capture social engagement while ignoring the people who live the culture it tries to represent. When large media organizations still think making dad jokes from three years ago is relevant, it discredits the entire publication (and really, media in general) and wedges the gap even further between important cores and misguided ideologies. In short, they're becoming worse at what they do — an effort that has consequences in real-time. Just look at what they've done. 

Nickelback jokes are dead and old, just like major media.