Mike Kroeger says culture around early hate for Nickelback was “training ground for cyber bullying”
nme.comNickelback bassist Mike Kroeger has said the hate his band received in their early days was a “training ground for cyber bullying”.The early ‘00s rockers often found themselves being used as an easy target, with many music fans in that era choosing to vocally express their distaste for the band.Kroeger – the brother of the band’s frontman Chad – even spoke to NME earlier this year about the phenomenon.
Reflecting on how they have been treated over the years, he said: “The thing we came to realise through all of this is as much as the word ‘hate’ is used, it’s pretty overstated because people don’t really care that much.”“If Nickelback is the thing you get most upset about, you’re living a charmed life.
Nobody’s trying to kill you, and you’re not starving to death. If our band is the level in which your hate exists, boy, you’re living in a fairy tale!”Now, the bassist has expanded on the topic, saying that the vitriol has was a precursor to what we now recognise in everyday life.Speaking to the Downbeat podcast, he said: “It was the training ground for cyber bullying.
Everybody was learning how to pick on people online, and we got to be patient zero of cyber bullying on social media. It sucked.
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