10 Artists the Internet Hates for No Reason

The internet is a bandwagon. Once an opinion or joke goes viral, people latch onto and repeat it ad nauseam until it stops making sense. “Chuck Norris is strong and cool.” “There was enough room on that raft for both Jack and Rose in Titanic.” “Nickelback is the worst band of all time.” And so on. Get a new gig.

This is especially true of music takes, where a widely held opinion can become the indisputable truth of the hive mind. If internet snarkers think your music sucks, your music will objectively suck now. No amount of good faith analysis can change that perception.

Like most things that spread on the internet, these takes aren’t always well-informed, and many of these “worst artists of all time” aren’t really that bad at all. Here are some acts we think people are being a little too hard on.

1. The Chainsmokers
It’s time to accept the fact that The Chainsmokers were a defining musical act of the mid-2010s. The preening, douchey, Brooklyn, Ken-doll-looking motherfuckers were the voices of their generation whether we like it or not. You can make a very sound argument that the group's best work rested on the talents of the featured artists, not the members. Superstar collaborators such as Coldplay on “Something Just Like This” and ace songwriters such as Emily Warren on “Paris” elevated the former novelty artists. Regardless, their name is attached to bona fide classics such as “Closer,” and you’d be hard pressed to find someone who went to college parties during that time who doesn’t have a soft spot for The Chainsmokers.

2. Nickelback
If you honestly believe Nickelback is the worst band of all time, two things are surely true about you. The first is that you internalize and mindlessly parrot everything you read on the internet. The second is that you don’t listen to much music. Nickelback was the face of the 2000s post-grunge rock scene, which has since not-so-affectionately been dubbed “butt rock.” While Chad Kroeger and company were certainly the omnipresent faces of this music, it’s unfair to the guys who brought us meme-able classics like “Photograph” to let them take the fall for it. Not when far butt-ier bands like Puddle of Mudd and Stain’d have been all but let off the hook.

3. Hanson
Hanson were a proto-Jonas Brothers for the '90s, during which they were mocked for their hair, for their annoyingly catchy one hit wonder “MMMBop” and for being children. Even in the minds of people who remember them fondly, though, that’s where their story usually ends. However, the brothers have since released 13 largely well-received pop-rock albums, becoming an “if you know, you know” kind of act among people whose knowledge of music goes deeper than hating things teenage girls like.

4. Imagine Dragons
Once again: If you honestly believe Imagine Dragons is the worst band of all time, two things are surely true about you. The first is that you internalize and mindlessly parrot everything you read on the internet. The second is that you don’t listen to much music. It’s disappointing how many acts on here those sentences can apply to, but we’ll show restraint and keep it to just the two. At the end of 2019, Billboard released its Top Rock Songs of the Decade. Imagine Dragons held the top three spots with “Believer,” “Thunder” and “Radioactive.” The group has accumulated billions of Spotify streams. With numbers like these, it’s safe to assume a good chunk of their haters are lying.

5. LMFAO
If you can’t relate to a song called “I’m Sexy and I Know It,” that sounds like a you problem.

6. Coldplay
You might be surprised to learn there are still some people who think it’s acceptable to hate on Coldplay. If you’re one of those people, let us be the first to tell you that saying "Coldplay sucks" doesn’t make you sound like an intellectual. It’s just makes you sound like you don’t have ears or a soul. If they are good enough for Brian Eno, one of the most important producers alive and a frequent Coldplay collaborator, they’re good enough for anyone.

7. Phil Collins
The name of this formerly ubiquitous pop star has become pop culture shorthand for sterilized basic-ness in recent years. He’s name-dropped in the 2000 satirical thriller American Psycho, which lumps his work in with other soulless pop hits favored by the titular serial killer, and in a more lighthearted manner in 2016’s Sing Street, where a character notes that “No woman can truly love a man who listens to Phil Collins.” Both of these movies were set in the 1980s, so they could not account for Collins’ epic soundtrack for Disney’s Tarzan, released in 1999. Stone-cold classics such as “Strangers Like Me” and “You’ll Be in My Heart” forever redeem him, at least in the eyes of '90s babies.

8. Yoko Ono
A lot of Yoko Ono’s work is heavily offbeat and experimental, making it not everyone’s cup of tea. However, most people’s distaste towards the artist, whose work also includes high-level performance art, is rooted in the belief she broke up The Beatles. She didn’t. Her work deserves to be discussed (and critiqued) on its own merits instead of invoking her name to perpetuate sexist mythology.

9. Mumford & Sons
It’s easy to look back on the movement from which Mumford & Sons sprang and cringe. The disingenuous hipster folk that also spawned The Lumineers and Of Monsters and Men now serves to soundtrack the Instagrammable brunch spot located where your favorite Indian buffet used to be. Marcus Mumford and his suspender-ed sons deserve that association, with the exception of one song. Breakout single “Little Lion Man,” with its blunt candor that Mumford’s peers never seemed capable of, feels as fresh and vital as it did over a decade ago. No matter where your career goes, nobody can take a classic from you.

10. Rebecca Black
Regardless of how you feel about her infamous breakout single “Friday” or the hyperpop offerings that have gained her a cult following in more recent years, one thing is objectively true about Rebecca Black: She is more equipped to work in music than any of us. Black was 13 years old when “Friday” dropped and was tormented for it in ways many adults wouldn’t be able to handle. In spite of all that, she loved music enough to keep pursuing it. You can’t not respect that.