One of the benefits of having a Spotify account is that I receive recommendation lists based on songs I play revert Monday and Friday. I enjoy these and have often discovered new artists and new songs. In the last few weeks, however, I have discovered a new trend, the COVID/quarantine anthem. Artists are recording songs about social distancing and staying at home. Here are a few examples:
So, I’m sending you this message
With a heavy heart to say
“I miss you, but I can’t be there today
I love you, and that’s why I’m gonna stay away
Billy Bragg “I Can’t Be There Today”
Remember it’s okay to stop
To look around and appreciate what you’ve got
Take a breath, take a breath
You can stop, and still be unstoppable
You can’t control the past or what lies ahead
So take the chance to start living in this moment instead
Don’t be scared, don’t be scared
You can stop, and still be unstoppable
You’re unstoppable
Stiff and Kitsch & James Taylor “Unstoppable”
Two very different styles and artists, but both songs talking directly or in code about quarantine restrictions and the bizarre world in which we have been living for the past two and a half months. Each week a few more appear. Some are overtly fund-raising efforts, others don’t show any connection. Some are individual artists, others are “We Are the World” type compilations. Some are nice, others are dreadful.
I think that this phenomenon is really interesting and illustrates much of the confusion of these days. The quarantine is not a blip, and there will be a sense of before and after that artists will need to acknowledge. One of my habits in reading is to watch for references to 9/11 in novels that aren’t about the incident itself. However, one cannot write about characters in that time without mentioning this event that affected everyone in the United States and much of the world. How will artists talk about this time?
These early efforts are true ephemera, they are of their time and will have little lasting value after this time has past. I can’t see the audience at a concert in a year or two clamoring for singers to trot out their COVID material, at least not the songs I have seen so far. To call them novelty songs is perhaps a bit harsh, but they won’t be entering the Great American Songbook any time soon.
Another characteristic of the songs I have seen so far is that they are message heavy and not particularly philosophical. Songs talk about the difficulty of being apart, but the challenge is undermined by the message to stay at home for the good of all. In this area these songs feel a lot like songs done by many of the stars of the day during the First and Second World War encouraging people to buy War Bonds. Philosophy and true reflection is traded for salesmanship.
Finally, there is a tentativeness to the lyrics to match the uncertainty of the times. No one knows how long these current conditions will remain (by the looks of Orange County, not much longer). Even more frightening, no one knows whether the efforts that have been made will be effective, as the progress of the disease remains a mystery. So there is hope that following quarantine guidelines will save us, but the costs have yet to be tallied, and the true narrative of this time is yet to be written.
I suspect that when there is some distance between the present and whatever the future may be that there will be more significant artistic works written about this time than, “There’s a war we’re fighting. It’s breaking all over hearts, and that’s the reason why we have to stay six feet apart.” (“Stay at Home, Stay Alive”). Rereading some of my earlier posts from this time I have been embarrassed by how many things I got wrong while writing in the storm. But writing while in a hurricane, probably the best that any artist can do is to sing “Hold on.”
Be safe, be strong”