[tigerthelion]

It's standard critical bullshit, in which all successful bands are lumped together and painted as bland and uninteresting. Thus the Hip are in the same bag as Nickelback, by virtue of being successful.

Exactly. I can almost guarantee that if the Hip sold the same amount of records as The Dears, then this writer would be DROOLING OVER THE HIP. I see that attitude in quite a bit of articles. I mean, a band can't be good and successful can it? I can't wait for the articles in two years by the SAME WRITERS who are hailing 'Arcade Fire' right now. If AF hit it HUGE and sell millions of records all of a sudden they will be labelled as overrated and a bunch of musical drivel.

DISCLAIMER: I am not even a fan of Arcade Fire. I just used them as an example.