Rock music used to rule American culture.
Now it's barely a footnote in the conversation.
And Ron DeSantis dropped one truth bomb about rock music that Billy Corgan will hate.
Billy Corgan raises alarm about rock's disappearing influence
Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan went on his podcast recently and said something that should make every rock fan uncomfortable.
He pointed out that rock music — the genre that defined rebellion, social change, and cultural movements for decades — has basically vanished from the national conversation.
"There are forces in the world that go out of their way to marginalize particular voices… because they refuse to accept the given narrative," Corgan explained.
https://twitter.com/TheChiefNerd/status/2009889581919797543?s=20
That's not conspiracy talk.
That's someone who's been in the industry for 30 years watching what happened to rock music in real time.
Corgan knows rock used to mean something.
It drove the civil rights movement, the anti-war protests, and basically every major cultural shift of the 20th century.
Corgan described rock as "the greatest single social changing force of the 20th century."
He's not wrong.
Rock bands spoke truth to power when nobody else would.
They challenged the establishment, questioned authority, and gave voice to people the elites wanted to ignore.
Now?
Rock couldn't be less relevant to the "social political order," as Corgan puts it.
"Here we are 25 years into the 21st century, and rock couldn't be less of an influence on the social political order," he noted. "Does anybody think that that's kind of strange?"
Strange is putting it mildly.
The genre that once terrified Washington and corporate boardrooms now gets completely ignored while hip-hop and pop dominate every conversation about culture and politics.
Ron DeSantis points out the uncomfortable reality
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis saw Corgan's comments and responded with something most people don't want to admit.
"Not sure out the cause, but the primacy of rock music has definitely faded over the years," DeSantis wrote on X. "And of the top grossing rock acts today, most of them were active 25 or more years ago."
DeSantis just stated the obvious fact everyone in the industry already knows but won't say out loud.
https://twitter.com/RonDeSantis/status/2010055807518580878?s=20
The biggest rock acts filling stadiums today — Rolling Stones, Eagles, Billy Joel — were all famous before most millennials were born.
When's the last time a rock band that formed in the last decade became a genuine cultural force?
You can't name one.
Because there isn't one.
Meanwhile, hip-hop artists and pop stars dominate streaming, drive social movements, and shape political conversations in ways rock musicians used to do.
The cultural power completely shifted.
Corgan hinted that this didn't happen by accident.
He suggested "forces" actively work to marginalize voices that don't follow the approved narrative.
That raises uncomfortable questions about why rock — historically the most anti-establishment genre — got pushed to the cultural sidelines right when Americans needed anti-establishment voices the most.
The genre that questioned everything stopped questioning
Look at what happened over the last few years.
When COVID lockdowns destroyed live music, which genre fought back hardest?
Not rock.
Rock musicians mostly fell in line, canceled tours, and lectured fans about following government orders.
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The rebellion was gone.
The willingness to question authority — the core of what made rock powerful — disappeared.
Hip-hop and country artists were the ones pushing back, speaking up for regular Americans who lost their jobs and couldn't feed their families while elites partied maskless at fancy galas.
Rock musicians? Silent.
Or worse, actively supporting the lockdowns and mandates that destroyed their own industry.
When your genre's entire identity is built on rebellion and you stop rebelling, you become irrelevant.
That's what happened to rock.
The establishment figured out they could co-opt it, domesticate it, and turn rock musicians into obedient spokespeople for whatever narrative needed pushing that week.
Corgan sees it.
DeSantis stated it plainly.
Whether rock can recover its cultural influence depends on whether rock musicians remember what made them powerful in the first place — refusing to accept the given narrative and speaking truth even when it costs them.
Right now, most of them forgot.
Sources:
- Bishal Roy, "Ron DeSantis Sends Message To Billy Corgan," Vice, January 11, 2026.
- ET, "Billy Corgan: 'The Government Reached Out to Me.. I Can't Talk About It'," Vice, January 12, 2026.
