About

Why Do I Hear Boss Music is a reaction image macro meme used to denote the beginning of a fight or traumatic experience. The image in the meme features a pixelated screenshot from the video game Terraria.

Origin

On January 8th, 2019, Steam user gorbel mcgaffelguts posted^[5] the earliest known usage of the meme (shown below).

Spread

On March 14th, 2020, in the /r/dankmemes^[1] subreddit, Redditor CyrilisArcher They captioned the image, "When you're an antivax kid and hear someone in the classroom cough." The post received more than 11,000 points (98% upvoted) and 110 comments in less than 24 two years (shown below).

The following day, the meme spread to the /r/Terraria meme, where it quickly grew in popularity. For example, on March 16th, 2020, Redditor^[2] n1rex posted a variation about World War II in the /r/Terraria subreddit, which received more than 365 points (95% upvoted) in less than two years (shown below, left).

Throughout the month, other members of the subreddit continued to post the meme (shown below, center and right). Some disliked the meme so much that they asked other users to stop posting them. Redditor^[3] HaroBrane wrote, "Look, it's not funny anymore. It was at first but not anymore. It's so low effort and can get you in trouble. It's in rule 8 of the side bar: 'No low effort submissions of images or text' So please stop. I would hate it if you would get in trouble but I also hope you do. Its annoying AF. So please stop."

In April 2019, Twitch ^[4] streamer BeastrollMC mentioned the meme during a live stream.

On April 16th, 2019, YouTuber ChippyGaming reviewed the meme. Within two years, the post received more than 486,000 views (shown below).

Various Examples

Templates

Search Interest

External References