• Home
  • Top Stories
  • Trending
  • Podcasts
  • MUSIC
  • Music Features
  • New Releases
  • Music Reviews
  • Music Lists
  • FILM
  • Film Features
  • Film News
  • Film Reviews
  • Film Lists
  • TV
  • CULTURE
  • B.S.
  • Culture Feature
  • Culture News
  • Popdust Presents
  • About Us
  • FILM & TV
  • Interviews
  • SPONSORED
  • STYLE
  • Privacy Policy
  • Popdust DEALS
  • Log in
Music
Film
TV
Culture
Interviews
Podcasts
  1. Popdust /
  2. MUSIC /
  3. Music Lists /
  4. Quarantine Playlist: Songs for the Coronavirus /
Music Lists

Quarantine Playlist: Songs for the Coronavirus

The flu is much deadlier than the coronavirus, but everyone loves a good panic.

Eden Arielle Gordon
03.03.2020
Sputnik Music

The first cases of coronavirus in New York have appeared, as predicted, meaning that we might have a full-on pandemic on our hands.

Fortunately, as always, music will be there to get us through whatever happens—from quarantine to revolution to everything in between.

Professionals have advised us all to avoid touching our faces and to wash our hands as much as possible, but aside from this, there's not all that much we can do. But hey, maybe if you're quarantined you'll finally have the chance to write that novel and catch up on all that music you've been meaning to. Or maybe you'll just finally have a chance to rest and ignore the rest of the world. Either way, coronavirus isn't really a cause to panic—but it is an opportunity to revisit some of our favorite apocalyptic songs.

Quarantine

Quarantine open.spotify.com


  1. Before the fever

Grimes' new album is the perfect song for the coronavirus era. This song is full of paranoid musings about full-on apocalypse, so it's perfect to listen to over and over as you prepare for the end times.

www.youtube.com

2. SICKO MODE

Travis Scott's warped, trippy Astroworld hit is as dreamy and distracted and Xanax-drowned as any new victim of coronavirus (or anyone taking an airplane in 2020, for that matter) is bound to be. Plus, if you want to celebrate your newly diagnosed status while the novelty is still alive, this is probably the perfect song.

YouTube www.youtube.com

3. It's the End of the World as We Know It

Maybe it's a good thing if the world as we know it ends. R.E.M. certainly thinks so—and this song is the ideal pick for celebrating the latest pandemic. Is this a karmic consequence of human cruelty? A random event in a random universe? A thought-virus that will clear the way for the final AI to take over? Either way, I feel fine.

www.youtube.com

4. Zombie

What actually happens when you get coronavirus? The Cranberries' hit paints a graphic picture. Maybe coronavirus is more like the flu than anything, but maybe it'll turn us all into violent zombies—if capitalism and violence haven't already done that.

www.youtube.com

5. House of the Rising Sun

There's something cyclical and claustrophobic about this legendary Animals song. It's ostensibly about gambling, but it could be about anything that's been the ruin of any a poor boy—and god, I know I'm one.

www.youtube.com

6. Stay Away

During the coronavirus, you might find this Nirvana song resonating a little more than usual. Of course, the virus gives you a great excuse to self-isolate and pepper spray anyone who comes within a foot of you.

www.youtube.com

7. In My Room (Frank Ocean)

During a quarantine, before your diagnosis, you'll have to spend a lot of time in your room. Try some spring cleaning while listening to this hazy Frank Ocean track.

www.youtube.com

8. In My Room (The Beach Boys)

The Beach Boys' "In My Room" is on par with Ocean's in terms of tracks about being stuck in one's room.

www.youtube.com

9. I Love My Room

By now you're probably sick of your room, but Elliot Smith's song might help you rediscover why you loved it in the first place.

www.youtube.com

10. Nobody

Now that you've been stuck in your room for what feels like a million years, the isolation might be getting to you. Mitski's brilliant, danceable and deeply depressing "Nobody" is perfect for dancing around your bedroom, screaming about how Venus, planet of love was destroyed by global warming because its people wanted too much.

www.youtube.com

12. Garden Song

Phoebe Bridgers' new song is just so beautiful, and it's accompanied by a video of Phoebe ripping a bong and then seeing a bunch of monsters. At this point in your quarantine, you'll probably be through most of your stash, and this video is the perfect way to celebrate that while lamenting the fact that you've spent your life working so hard to reach some elusive idea of success, only to be stymied by a few germs. Life is strange.

www.youtube.com

13. Sick Boy

A departure from The Chainsmokers' sickeningly sweet pop EDM, this under-played anthem is a darker look at our tendency to insulate ourselves from the world's problems to the point of becoming numb: "And I'm from the east side of America / Where we desensitize by hysteria / And we can pick sides, but this is us."

www.youtube.com

14. I Wanna Get Better

This profoundly motivating and incredibly desperate Bleachers track will lift any spirit, even in the darkest times. "Now I'm standing on the interstate screaming, I wanna get better" is honestly the ultimate breaking-your-quarantine-in-a-fit-of-hysteria coronavirus mood.

www.youtube.com

15. Uprising

Now that you've left your house, you might realize that the apocalypse has actually begun. The stores are empty, people are dropping like flies and a group of subversive renegades have risen up. "Uprising" is the ideal soundtrack for your dramatic entrance into the rebels' camp.

www.youtube.com

16. Human

Perhaps the singular thing we all have in common is that we all occupy frail human bodies that will one day perish in the fires of capitalism and our own greed (or at least that, plus everybody poops).

www.youtube.com

17. Save Me From Myself

If isolated long enough, our worst enemy becomes ourselves. Find a way to reach out: carrier pigeon, SOS in ashes, morse code in flashes of light or the sound of your frustrated yells.

www.youtube.com

18. I Will

Now you and the rebels have set up shop in an underground bunker, and Radiohead's moody masterpiece "I Will" is the only choice for your late-night meetings spent poring over games of Pandemic.

www.youtube.com

19. This Is Not The End

You might feel like giving up. Your skin misses the sunlight and your heart aches for the world you lost, which you always took for granted. You're so close to giving up and letting the virus take over—but then you think of this MILCK song, and you resolve to push on.

www.youtube.com

20. Cough Syrup

Who hasn't doubled the dosage every now and then?

www.youtube.com

21. Mad World

This is the perfect song to listen to as you contemplate the state of humanity. You always knew death was inevitable, but it never felt quite so real, and chaos never felt so powerful.

www.youtube.com

22. Pompeii

Humans have been undergoing crises like the coronavirus for all of time, so you can take comfort in knowing you're not the first or last living thing to face a disaster or a pandemic. Before the coronavirus, there was Pompeii.

www.youtube.com

23. We're Not Gonna Take It

During the part of the afternoon that's post-lunch but before nap #2, let the anger wash over you. Government failure did this; illegal wildlife trade did this; our own human frailty did this; and to make matters worse, the men of Twisted Sisters probably had better hair than you. Life's not fair.

www.youtube.com

24. Enjoy the Silence

Sure, 80% of people who contract the virus have few or mild symptoms and heal themselves, but who doesn't spend a portion of their sick days staring into the abyss and petting their cat(s) while whispering to themselves, "All I ever wanted / All I ever needed / Is here in my arms."

www.youtube.com

25. Running Up That Hill

Placebo covers Kate Bush's 1985 original with the verve of a dying man who refuses to walk into the light.

www.youtube.com

26. Three Little Birds

Now that we're done entertaining our panic, let's remember that coronavirus is not the risk that the media is painting it to be. It is certainly not an instant death sentence—actually many people heal from it with barely any health consequences at all. You are definitely not guaranteed to contract it, and humanity has addressed conflicts and viruses like this before.

So let's all get over ourselves and be on our way, shall we?

www.youtube.com

From Your Site Articles
  • Popdust ›
  • Meg Hanson ›
  • Popdust Investigates: Is Garth Brooks the World's Biggest Bernie ... ›
  • Keith Baldwin ›
  • Jenna Jameson Accused Buzzfeed Reporter of Being a Pedophile ... ›
  • 4 Lessons from Virus Outbreak Movies ›
  • 38% of Americans Are Right Not to Drink Corona - Popdust ›
  • Rush Limbaugh: Coronavirus Is "Being Weaponized...to Bring Down ... ›
  • With Coronavirus in Mind, Dick Pound Releases Hard Deadline to ... ›
  • BTS Canceled South Korean Concerts Due to Coronavirus - Popdust ›
  • 8 Best Covers From Musicians in Quarantine - Popdust ›
  • Best Books to Read While Quarantined - Popdust ›
  • Sujata Day talks with Popdust About Her Directorial Debut Film, “Definition Please" - Popdust ›
  • 14 Celebrities Who Had COVID-19 - Popdust ›
  • Best Books to Read While Quarantined - Popdust ›
Related Articles Around the Web
  • Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) ›
  • Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) | CDC ›
  • Coronavirus ›
coronavirus
RELATED

7 Ways Betty White Makes Us Smarter

Review: "WandaVision" Wants You to Fall in Love with TV Again

15 Classic Commercials to Trigger Your '90s-Kid Nostalgia

Are You Dreaming This?: Armie Hammer's DMs and Other Signs You Might Be Dreaming 2021

Read More ⟩
POPDUST DEALS

5 Reasons You Should Upgrade To An Ekster Wallet

How The Bed, By Thuma Transformed My Work From Home Space

More Deals ⟩