A lot of bands back in the 1990s and 2000s got a ton of hate they didn’t necessarily deserve. Fortunately, with Gen Z’s love of nostalgia influencing trends in music today, quite a few of those bands have started to get love again in the 2020s. Let’s look at just a few examples, shall we?
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Creed
It used to be very cool to hate Creed. In a way, I get it. After the golden era of grunge had come to its natural end, post-grunge emerged as a watered-down version of the aggressive rock fore-genre. A lot of fans of grunge and alt-rock didn’t love it, and Creed was probably the most famous example of post-grunge in the early 2000s. Scott Stapp also did some pretty unsavory things back in the day.
But overall, the music wasn’t the worst thing on the planet. It seems like younger generations are starting to appreciate the grunge, post-grunge, and Y2K eras of music, so Creed has been getting a bit more love nowadays. “With Arms Wide Open” has popped up in memes on TikTok recently, too.
Limp Bizkit
Limp Bizkit has never been everyone’s cup of tea. Nu-metal as a whole isn’t the most widely loved genre. While the nu-metal movement had a ton of fans in the early 2000s, a lot of people weren’t down with what Limp Bizkit and frontman Fred Durst were putting down. There was also quite a bit of drama surrounding the group’s involvement with the violence that took place at Woodstock 99.
Limp Bizkit is alive and well today, and they’ve been pulling in a new generation of fans. They’re working on an album in 2025, they’ve been touring pretty extensively, and they famously have been performing wild sets with the likes of Corey Feldman and Riff Raff. Is this newfound love just irony in disguise? Who knows?
Nickelback
They’re one of the most wildly successful Canadian rock bands of all time. And yet, it became super cool to absolutely hate Nickelback in the 2000s. That hate has been rooted in the post-grunge distaste of grunge fans, but it also seems to be a case of early internet dogpiling.
Despite the fact that all people talked about for years was how much they hated Nickelback, they were a massively commercially successful band, particularly on the radio. Today, their old classics are getting more love online via apps like TikTok.
Coldplay
Coldplay was one of the most hated bands of the 2000s, but they didn’t seem to care. They’ve broken records for how much money they’ve made with their tours, and they’re still pulling in massive crowds. While it was “cool” to hate this successful rock band back in the day, it seems like younger listeners are coming around to seeing Coldplay’s appeal.
Photo by Martin Philbey/Redferns
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