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 (Bonos Let Your Love Be Known, Alicia Keys Good Job), Pandemic Pop (Cardi B and iMarkkeyzs Coronavirus, Curtis Roach and Tygas Bored in the House), the COVID Cover (Gal Gadots Imagine, Juveniles Vax That Thang Up), and Pandemic Protest (Ian Browns Little Seed Big Tree, Kid Rocks We The People). 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.