PAAs I sit listening to our office playlist, which consists of songs by acts such as Natasha Bedingfield, N-Dubz and Scouting For Girls (not sure they’d get away with that name these days…), I really wish Corey Taylor from Slipknot was here to talk further about his opinion on the worst band on the planet.
I think we’d have a lot to talk about. Unfortunately though, he’s not here to elaborate, and instead he’s claimed that it’s actually Nickelback who were the worst band on the planet, but who have now been dethroned.
So who does Taylor think are the rightful heirs to the title? Greta Van Fleet? Very possibly. Mumford and Sons? Perhaps. Busted? Ouch.
In fact it’s none of these. The Slipknot frontman has instead planted his flag firmly in the Imagine Dragons camp, claiming the Las Vegas group have overtaken Nickelback as literally the worst band on the whole planet.
A bit like how Coldplay became the go-to name for bland, middle-of-the-road indie pop, Nickelback have long been the go-to name for bland, middle-of-the-road rock.
However, despite Slipknot and Nickelback’s previous hatred towards one another, the Slipknot frontman now reckons Nickelback are ‘passing the baton’ to Imagine Dragons. Will this result in some Eminem-esque diss tracks appearing? Probably not, that sort of thing seems restricted to the rap world only, and besides, bands such as Nickelback seem to do a great job of shooting themselves in the foot with songs like Rockstar, so it’s only a matter of time before Imagine Dragons do the same.
Taylor was appearing on Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones’ radio show, Jonesy’s Jukebox, when he made the explosive claims about batons being passed and bands being the literal worst.
On the show, Jones called Nickelback ‘the scapegoat of rock and roll’, with which Taylor agreed.
Taylor then added:
However, they are passing the baton to Imagine Dragons right now, and I love it. They’re awful, so that’s cool. And they’re from Vegas, so I’m gonna go home to protest. Can’t show my face in this town now. Yeah, people are slowly coming back to appreciate Nickelback and then just turning their irksome ire towards Imagine Dragons.
You can listen to it here:
He’s got a point. After a years of sustained, probably unjustified negativity directed towards Nickelback, they’re still chugging away and living like rockstars, so maybe it’s time for them to pass on the baton.
Imagine Dragons can probably handle a bit of stick from Taylor anyway, and I’m sure their fans won’t mind, seeing as songs like Radioactive have over one billion views on YouTube. While the band’s frontman, Dan Reynolds, has raised over $1 million for organisations that support the LGBTQ community through his LoveLoud festival, the Independent reports.
At the end of the day, music is the real winner. Anyway, it’s Maroon 5.
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Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.