Lawmakers Debate Nickelback on Fox News: Why ‘Criticize One of the Greatest Bands of the ‘90s?’

In light of last week’s House floor debate over the band Nickelback, Fox & Friends invited Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL) and Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) to hash out their disagreement about the ’90s and mid-2000s post-grunge band.

Fox News host Brian Kilmeade began the segment by demanding to know why a lawmaker would go after “one of greatest bands of the ‘90s?”

Pocan, who does not like Nickelback, explained that he raised the issue during a discussion over an unpopular provision for keeping track of prison inmates.

“Four out of 77,000 people thought this provision should stay,” he said. “I thought a good way to illustrate it pretty much universally people think Nickelback is a not great band. We ran into a little trouble on that on the floor.”

Kilmeade brought up the other lawmaker’s music taste, as Davis has a Nickelback song at the top of one of his playlists. The host then congratulated Davis “for sticking up for what you believe in.”

Pocan continued by suggesting the cordial disagreement about the tenets of Nickelback is a sign that lawmakers on opposite sides can debate important topics in a civil manner:

“[Nickelback] was actually trending in Washington, D.C. and that probably has never happened… but like Rodney said, this is a really important illustration of someone like Rodney is a classy, decent guy, you could have a good debate on the floor. It doesn’t always have to be what people think often get shown in the media, just the big opposition. This is one where we stumbled on this Rodney needs better taste in music I’m glad to help him on that. I think we did it in a lighthearted way. It shows we can work together.”

While the band gets less attention now, a several years ago — during the rise of mainstream meme culture — mocking Nickelback for being among the worst rock bands became a viral trend, which clearly still hurts their image today.

As for the Democrat lawmaker’s music taste, Pocan named “Bruce Springsteen, Lady Gaga, and Bon Iver” as his top artists. His Republican colleague shook his head in disapproval, noting that hasn’t “heard of those songs.”

“Maybe I am stuck in the ‘90s and 2000s,” Davis concluded.

Watch above, via Fox News.

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