From someone who was actually around back then, no one ever hated Nickelback. Nickelback was extremely popular but exclusively with women and other forms of faggot. They were a girl band, we all knew it, that's why men (real ones anyway) only listened to them if dragged around by their girlfriends. Nickelback was simply there, they were present, the same way disco was back in the 70s, or dubstep was in the early faceberg era.

When you see people today say that Nickelback was always good, that's due to two main reasons. First, for the past 20 years there haven't been any good new bands, of any form, anywhere, ever. Second, the microplastics in your testicles are preventing you, the NormiePigCattle, from receiving the correct amount of testosterone that would normally prevent you from enjoying a band like Nickelback. You have become feminized, hence the resurgence of things like the star wars prequels and gay girl bands from the 2000s. Back then, girls listened to nickelback, guys listened to stuff like Manowar, and then the real men listened to Anal Cunt.