Pandemic Playlist

Pandemic Playlist: An Exploration of COVID-inspired Popular Music takes readers back to 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on the music industry. Focusing on those artists who responded directly to the pandemic with their music, Kevin Farrell explores a selection of songs written and recorded about COVID-19. These songs range from the hilariously tongue-in-cheek to the painfully earnest to the self-righteously angry, coming from musicians obscure, world famous, and up-and-coming. Farrell argues that these songs, both originals and repurposed covers, are best classified by rhetorical approach, rather than musical style, identifying four basic categories of COVID-inspired popular music: the Coronavirus Anthem (Bono's "e;Let Your Love Be Known,"e; Alicia Keys' "e;Good Job"e;), Pandemic Pop (Cardi B and iMarkkeyz's "e;Coronavirus,"e; Curtis Roach and Tyga's "e;Bored in the House"e;), the COVID Cover (Gal Gadot's "e;Imagine,"e; Juvenile's "e;Vax That Thang Up"e;), and Pandemic Protest (Ian Brown's "e;Little Seed Big Tree,"e; Kid Rock's "e;We The People"e;). Through a study of these songs, and many more, this book seeks to understand what the pandemic and the music it inspired can teach us about the previously unimaginable.