Pavlov, Nickelback and Me

I used to detest Nickelback. They were one of the few bands that I would actually turn off if they came on the radio. And as a rule, I do not participate in music snobbery, but Nickelback songs, I eschewed.

Then something weird occurred. I happened to hear a Nickelback song during a happy event in my life. And all of a sudden, Nickelback was okay. I bought a couple of tracks from iTunes. I even developed a weird, Neanderthal-crush on Chad Kroeger, who has since been voted the ugliest person in rock in an online poll.

The funny thing is, I can’t actually remember that happy event that made me start to like what I had so abhorred before. It is a perfect illustration of Pavlov’s classical conditioning. The happy event was the unconditioned stimulus, my feelings of joy being the unconditioned response. Nickelback became the conditioned stimulus – I’ve now forgotten that event, but am left with feelings of jocundity at the first few bars of Photograph…