You might assume now that he's been out of office for nearly five years, conservatives would stop reflexively blaming former Democratic President Barack Obama for every little thing they don't like.
But you'd be wrong.
Jeremy Boering, a conservative talk show host for far-right media outlet Daily Wire, claimed—without irony—Obama destroyed rock 'n roll. Yes, you read that right.
Rock 'n roll is over, which is certainly news to anyone with ears. And it's all Obama's fault.
Naturally, the internet is absolutely roasting him for his comments, which you can see below.
Daily Wire host says Barack Obama destroyed rock 'n roll because "rock 'n roll was about white male angst...Barack Obama came along and said young white men aren't allowed to have angst"pic.twitter.com/hhmXcwEEKo— Jason Campbell (@Jason Campbell) 1631724699
Boering—an apt name if there ever was one—made his comments during the September 14 episode of Daily Wire Backstage.
When one of his co-hosts mentioned rock 'n roll, Boering quipped:
"Rock 'n roll's over. You're still talking about rock 'n roll as if Barack Obama didn't happen. Honestly – it's for another day – but Barack Obama destroyed rock 'n roll... There was rock 'n roll, then there was Barack Obama, and now there's no rock 'n roll."
Um... okay then.
So how exactly did Barack Obama destroy rock 'n roll, you ask? Well, this being a far-right talk show at a media outlet that frequently traffics in thinly veiled White nationalism, the answer is of course because Obama hurt White men's feelings or something.
As Boering put it:
"Because rock 'n roll was about White male angst, White male teenage angst."
"Barack Obama came along and said young White men aren't allowed to have angst. They're not allowed to, basically, express their dissatisfaction because they're so toxic. And so, truly, rock 'n roll just stopped."
For the record, not one word of that is true.
Barack Obama never said anything of the sort, and rock 'n roll is still very much a genre of music. The Strokes—a band who rose to prominence in 2001 during the presidency of the very White, very conservative Republican George W. Bush, by the way—just won a Grammy for it six months ago and everything.
More importantly, rock 'n roll was conceived by Black musicians—many of them women—and some of the genre's most legendary stars have been Black, female and/or queer—like Jimi Hendrix, Joan Jett and David Bowie to name only a few.
Even Boering's co-host, White nationalist darling Ben Shapiro, obliquely pointed this out, telling Boering rock 'n roll was also about "stealing a lot of its tropes from better Black music," a comment Boering conveniently ignored.
On Twitter, people roasted Boering to a crisp for his comments.
More than 30 years ago Little Richard and Chuck Berry spelled out the erasure of black musicians who created rock n' roll. This guy is deliberately perpetuating that whitewashing of history while blaming America's first black President for a lack of white-angst rock music.pic.twitter.com/z3jv5gAlBE— BurritoSupremeLeader (@BurritoSupremeLeader) 1631756868
:: stares in Sister Rosetta Tharpe ::https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gELe5Rj_tXU\u00a0\u2026— G.M. Sarli \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08\u267f\ud83d\udc9b (@G.M. Sarli \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08\u267f\ud83d\udc9b) 1631747729
Umm... what?!pic.twitter.com/d6EG3fnQhG— Laura Apollo (@Laura Apollo) 1631730472
I\u2019m scratching my head\u2026\n\n\u201cIf you had to give rock and roll another name, you might call it Chuck Berry.\u201d -John Lennonpic.twitter.com/Zq0zVdArJX— Debbie La Torre \ud83d\udcca (@Debbie La Torre \ud83d\udcca) 1631732952
Even the Country Music Hall of Fame considers Chuck Berry the Father of Rock n Roll. pic.twitter.com/qk225cGyY3— MotownMargee\ud83d\udc99\ud83d\udc9a\ud83c\udf32\ud83e\udd85\ud83c\udfb6\ud83d\udc3a\ud83e\udd8a\ud83e\udd89 (@MotownMargee\ud83d\udc99\ud83d\udc9a\ud83c\udf32\ud83e\udd85\ud83c\udfb6\ud83d\udc3a\ud83e\udd8a\ud83e\udd89) 1631739048
Rock n roll. Invented by African Americans\u2026\n\nThey\u2019re running out of things to complain about with no idea what they\u2019re talking about.— David Paniagua Jr. (@David Paniagua Jr.) 1631724897
Rock and roll destroyed itself because it was too white and male. There were only token gestures for women and people of color in rock.— Drake Ate His Lunch Anyway (@Drake Ate His Lunch Anyway) 1631725808
Must have been news to Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Living Colour, etc— SaveMeASeat\u2b50\ufe0f\u2b50\ufe0f #BLM (@SaveMeASeat\u2b50\ufe0f\u2b50\ufe0f #BLM) 1631731265
I remember when Barack Obama called me on my cell phone in 2011 and told me I wasn't allowed to have angst anymore. worst day of my life— /\/ _/ (@/\/ _/) 1631726703
Black people invented Rock n\u2019 Roll. In 50 years we will be arguing with these white mens grandchildren that Eminem did not invent rap and Justin Timberlake did not invent R&B— Qondi \ud83d\udc9b \ud83d\udc1d \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8\ud83c\uddff\ud83c\udde6\ud83c\uddff\ud83c\uddfc (@Qondi \ud83d\udc9b \ud83d\udc1d \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8\ud83c\uddff\ud83c\udde6\ud83c\uddff\ud83c\uddfc) 1631734338
It's also worth noting while Boering spends his time dog-whistling at racists on a Daily Wire talk show, Barack Obama has among his gigs a post as co-host of a podcast with rock 'n roll royalty Bruce Springsteen.
Your move, Jeremy.
