For years, the story surrounding Weezer’s sophomore album Pinkerton was that everybody hated it because of its mopey departure from the pop hits of The Blue Album, which meant that anyone who did like it could feel like they were in a secret club of people who are just a little bit cooler than everyone else. The problem with this story is that Pinkerton really is a great album, so as more and more people came to recognize that fact, the “it’s cool to like Pinkerton” narrative started to fall apart. These days, Pinkerton itself is cool, but liking Pinkerton isn’t cool because everybody likes Pinkerton.
Now, in what should be the final nail in the coffin of the “it’s cool to like Pinkerton” concept, Weezer has announced that the album has officially sold one million copies, earning it a platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association Of America. Granted, it took 20 years to reach that milestone, so the people who got on board with Pinkerton early are a little cooler than the people who might buy it after today, but now the album is just chocolate ice cream or pepperoni pizza—as in, it’s one of those things that you should just assume everyone likes.
Of course, there are probably people out there who specifically do not like Pinkerton and think that Make Believe (or whatever) is really Weezer’s best album, but they’re not cool either. Taking the contrarian opinion is cool in theory, but come on. How can you not like Pinkerton? Everybody likes Pinkerton.