COVID-19 pandemic in popular culture

References to the COVID-19 pandemic in popular culture began while the pandemic was still underway. They are distinct from, but overlap with, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the arts and cultural heritage.

"Afectos en pandemia," by Hilda Chaulot

Background and themes

The COVID-19 pandemic swept the world in the early months of 2020, causing massive economic and social disruption, which is ongoing as of February 2021. In addition to the disease itself, populations often dealt with lockdowns, shortages and pandemic fatigue. This has made the pandemic era a time of exceptional stress.[1] The pandemic has driven some people to seek peaceful escapism in media, but others towards fictional pandemics (i.e., zombie apocalypses) as an alternate form of escapism.[2]

Themes include contagion, isolation and loss of control.[3]

In media

The pandemic has been woven into the narratives of ongoing pre-pandemic TV shows and made a focus in new ones, with mixed results.[4] Writing about the then-upcoming BBC sitcom Pandemonium on 16 December 2020, The New York Times asked, "Are we ready to laugh about Covid-19? Or rather, is there anything amusing, or recognizable in a humorous way, about life during a plague, with all of its indignities and setbacks, not to mention its rituals (clapping for health care workers) and rules (face masks, please)."[5]

Songbird, described as the first American film derived entirely from the pandemic,[6] was released on December 11, 2020 to generally negative reviews.[7][8]

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

Film and television
"It was inevitable that films would be made about this significant chapter in global history, in part because a small group of people enduring an extended stay in their own homes is about the only scenario it’s safe and logistically possible to actually shoot right now. But did the results have to start arriving while we’re all still stuck in this nightmare?"
A. A. Dowd, The A.V. Club[9]
  • Pablo Larrain coordinated a short film anthology entitled Homemade, created during—and featuring stories about—the COVID-19 lockdown period. Each of the 17 directors were asked to produce a five- to seven-minute-long film, using only equipment found at home, and for a general audience. The project was conceived in March and released only three months later in June, via Netflix.[10]
  • The official music video for the song Phenom by Thao & the Get Down Stay Down was recorded entirely via the "rigid grid format of the teleconferencing app Zoom", while the band members were in home isolation. Described as "the finest music video to emerge from our age of isolation", it took eight days to complete.[11]
  • The horror film Host, a computer screen film, was produced and released during the pandemic and centers on characters attacked by a supernatural presence after conducting a seance via Zoom.
  • Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, a sequel to the 2006 mockumentary film Borat, was released on Prime Video in October 2020. It features the fictional Kazakh journalist Borat Sagdiyev (Sacha Baron Cohen) traveling around the United States and interacting with Americans during the pandemic. The film's conclusion jokingly postulates that COVID-19 was created by the Kazakhstan government, which used Borat to spread it and start the pandemic.[12]
  • U.S. medical drama television series The Good Doctor and Grey's Anatomy began airing their season 4 and season 17, respectively, in November 2020. Both featured COVID-19's impact on the characters working at, and patients of, the hospital where the shows are set – including recurring characters becoming infected by the disease.[13][14]
  • Songbird, an American dystopian romantic thriller film directed by Adam Mason and produced by Michael Bay, in which "COVID-23" has caused the world to remain in lockdown for four years, filmed in Los Angeles during the real-world pandemic with consequently disrupted-production.[15] Initial response was negative, with critics arguing that it was "Cashing in on human suffering"[16] and "throwing nightmare fuel on the fire of conspiracy theorists."[17]
  • Locked Down, about a jewelry heist during the pandemic, was released on HBO Max on January 14, 2021, after being filmed in September 2020 and set the previous spring.[9] It received mixed reviews.[18] [19]

Music
  • Markus J Buehler at Massachusetts Institute of Technology produced a musical score from a sonification algorithm and the structure of the virus' S (spike) protein. Beyond the aesthetic appeal of the outcome of the analysis, it may offer another method of finding potential binding sites for therapeutic targets and thereby assist with treatment.[20][21]
  • Australian musicians Tim Minchin and Briggs produced the song HouseFyre—satirising Prime Minister Scott Morrison's leadership during the preceding months—whilst under isolation in their respective homes. The video clip was filmed from their mobile phones, with proceeds from the song's sale going towards a fundraiser for indigenous artists.[22]
  • Musician iMarkkeyz remixed an Instagram video by rapper Cardi B to release the song Coronavirus in mid-March. It reached No. 1 on the Brazilian iTunes chart[23] and No. 9 the US,[24] and was called "the first stirring of what a future historian may call pandemic pop".[25]
  • British Army veteran Captain Tom Moore raised more than $55 million for Britain's National Health Service (NHS) in the middle of the pandemic on the week of his 100th birthday with a version of You'll Never Walk Alone with singer Michael Ball and the NHS Voices of Care Choir, becoming the oldest artist to top the music charts and claim a UK number one single.[26]
  • The New York Public Library published an album of "audio landscapes"—recordings of ambient sounds evocative of the city—Missing Sounds of New York (including of the sound of peak hour traffic, a baseball game, a busy restaurant, and of the library's own reading room). Released on 1 May, it had been streamed on Spotify in the first week over 200,000 times and publicly praised by the city's mayor.[27]
  • The Finnish National Opera produced the opera Covid fan tutte, which premiered in Helsinki in March 2020. The opera takes its score from Mozart's Così fan Tutte, with an original libretto by Minna Lindgren discussing the effects of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic on life in Finland.
  • Another adaptation designed to give employment to musicians and live entertainment to patrons, was the revival of live concerts played during a break in a restaurant meal, such as the Sydney Symphony Orchestra string trio playing for diners when the restaurant at the Sydney Opera House re-opened.[28]
  • NPR's "Morning Edition Song Project" has been inviting musicians to submit original songs about their unique experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic .[29]

Literature
"For writers, as the tentacles of the coronavirus unfurl each day, everything is copy. But what happens when every writer on the planet starts taking notes on the same subject? Will we all hand in our book reports simultaneously, a year from now? The nature of tragedy is that it takes more than it gives, but it’s also produced some of our most iconic literature."
Author, Sloane Crosley[30]
"Books about the epidemic are needed now. They provide people with the cultural means to understand something that is uprooting their existence."
Author and virologist, Roberto Burioni[31]
  • The novel Lockdown by Peter May, written in 2005 and describing a global pandemic, was originally rejected for publication for being unrealistic. When a fan requested he write something relating to the COVID-19 pandemic, the author said he thought about it for a minute before he "realised that I've kind of already done it." It was published in April 2020.[32]
  • Horror and supernatural fiction author Stephen King backdated the setting of a forthcoming novel from 2020 to 2019, so that the characters could plausibly congregate and go on a cruise ship.[33]
  • Paolo Giordano, Italian physicist and award-winning author of the Premio Strega, published his thoughts about the virus outbreak in an essay entitled How Contagion Works in March 2020. It was quickly translated into more than 20 languages.[31]
  • Italian virologist and author Roberto Burioni published Virus. La grande sfida [Virus. The Great Challenge], an examination of how epidemics shape civilisations in March 2020. The proceeds went toward research on the virus.[34]
  • Italian publisher Garzanti published Andrà tutto bene [Everything will be fine], an anthology of twenty-six short stories and essays about quarantine from a range of writers including children's author Elisabetta Gnone. Profits from the sale of the e-book went to the Pope John XXIII Hospital in Bergamo.[35]

Performing arts
  • Madrid's Teatro Real debuted a modified version of Verdi's La Traviata where COVID-19 physical distancing restrictions were incorporated into the production. Performers begin on stage wearing surgical masks; the staging featured a grid of 2m wide taped red lines on the floor, with all actors' movements choreographed to remain apart; and the opera itself was selected as the plot features tuberculosis.[36]
  • Tamas Detrich, director of the Stuttgart Ballet commissioned eight contemporary dance works "created within and for these straitened circumstances", three of which were premiered at the company's first post-shutdown event Response 1.[37]
  • Several professional dancers and companies, both classical and contemporary, filmed and published new works which responded to themes of isolation. Either through in the choreography itself (e.g. Rhiannon Faith's Drowntown), in the location (e.g. empty public places Taylor Stanley outside the Lincoln Center, choreography by Kyle Abraham), or the filming technique (e.g. in Flying Home by street dance group BirdGang via "...the now all-too-familiar segmented Zoom-style screen").[38]
  • The show believed to be the first full capacity premiere of a play anywhere in the world since the pandemic began was a theatrical adaptation of the popular children's television show Bluey entitled Bluey's Big Play, The Stage Show. After months of delay, the play - developed by Windmill Theatre Company from an original story by Bluey’s creator Joe Brumm with new music by Bluey composer, Joff Bush - made its debut in Brisbane in late December 2020 at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre.[39]

Visual art
  • In April, street artist Banksy published a new piece of his trademark wall art—this time located in his own bathroom, referencing the required self-isolation—with coronavirus as the theme and "stir-crazy rats" as its subject. He published photographs of it online.[40] In July he continued the rats theme, with several stencil graffiti of rats wearing and playing with facemasks in a London tube carriage.[41]
  • Artists in the United Kingdom painted portraits of National Health Service workers for free, as a way of recognising their contributions, and with a view to holding an exhibition once the pandemic subsides.[42]
  • Damien Hirst produced two versions of a new poster artwork entitled Butterfly Rainbow—one as a free download "to raise the spirits", and another to be sold in limited edition as a fundraiser for the UK's National Health Service.[43]
  • Sculptor Antony Gormley created Hold while in lockdown—a small human figure made of dark clay, "resting its head between tightly wound arms, clasping bent knees and shoulders. Toes curled inwards" which he described as "trying to make an objective equivalent for the state that we're all in". It was "exhibited online" at White Cube gallery.[44]
  • Artist Sara Shakeel created a series of digital images to encourage proper hand washing and to thank health care workers, by depicting both collaged with the artist's signature glitter and crystals.[45]
E guarirai da tutte le malattie.. ed io, avrò cura di te, by Giovanni Guida
  • Italian artist Giovanni Guida created E guarirai da tutte le malattie.. ed io, avrò cura di te[46] [And you'll be cured of all diseases.. and I'll take care of you], a grattage illustration of God fighting the virus in a composition referencing Michelangelo's The Creation of the Sun and Moon.[47] The work was described by Italian media as having gone "viral".[48]
  • Dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei created "an initial batch" of 10,000 surgical masks with hand screen-printed illustrations of "sunflower seeds, mythical beasts and... a defiant middle finger". The items are to be sold via eBay with proceeds being donated to Human Rights Watch, Refugees International and Médecins Sans Frontières.[49]
  • Over 70 comic strips participated in The Big Thank You Search of 2020. Each strip included six symbols of workers who were essential during the pandemic.[50]
  • For the 2020 edition of the annual photography festival Cortona on the Move [It] organisers commissioned photographers for an exhibition entitled The COVID 19 visual project—the first Italian arts festival since the health emergency began.[51] A virtual exhibition was also produced.[52]

Websites
  • In 2020, NORAD announced they would continue NORAD Tracks Santa, despite the pandemic.[53] The 3D depiction of Santa Claus on the tracker showed him wearing a mask while in his sleigh.

In social media

Many memes[54] (notably in the form of art-recreations[55]), songs,[25] and videos[56] were created by, and shared among, the large numbers of amateur content creators from in their homes during the isolation period itself.

In sports

The disruption of sports has been extensive, but the pandemic has also spurred new developments. Polygon's Brian David Gilbert and Secret Base's Kofie Yeboah created a parody sport/esport hybrid called surferball, which factored the pandemic's social distancing requirements into its gameplay.[57]

References
  1. Newman, Kira M. (2020-08-11). "Seven Ways the Pandemic Is Affecting Our Mental Health". greatergood.berkeley.edu. Greater Good. Retrieved 2020-12-19. In late March, nearly 3,500 people were surveyed in Spain, when the country ranked second in the world in COVID-19 deaths. Many people met the criteria for clinical mental health problems: 19 percent for depression, almost a quarter for anxiety, and 16 percent for PTSD. Within a week after Slovenia declared an epidemic, over half of the thousands of people surveyed had high stress levels. In April, 14 percent of Americans were experiencing serious psychological distress, more than triple the rate in 2018.
  2. Nobel, Emma (2020-04-13). "COVID-19 will shape pop culture for years to come, but for now we love pandemic stories". abc.net.au. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 2020-12-18. Fictitious stories about pandemics give us a way to experience the horror in a controlled way, with the pacing we've grown to expect, where resolution is always possible, and where we can always turn off the TV if it gets a bit too much.
  3. McCluskey, Megan (2020-10-07). "Horror Films Have Always Tapped Into Pop Culture's Most Urgent Fears. COVID-19 Will Be Their Next Inspiration". Time. Retrieved 2020-12-19.
  4. "How The Covid-19 Pandemic Is Affecting Popular Culture". augustman.com. August Man. 2020-11-24. Retrieved 2020-12-18. In addition to existing shows, streaming platforms and cable channels have tried putting together new series centred on coronavirus, like HBO’s “Coastal Elites” or Netflix’s “Social Distance” – but with no real success.
  5. Segal, David (2020-12-16). "Are We Ready to Laugh About Covid-19? A British Sitcom Hopes So". The New York Times. Retrieved 2020-12-18. Are we ready to laugh about Covid-19? Or rather, is there anything amusing, or recognizable in a humorous way, about life during a plague, with all of its indignities and setbacks, not to mention its rituals (clapping for health care workers) and rules (face masks, please).
  6. Vishnevetsky, Ignatiy (2020-12-10). "The first movie inspired by the pandemic is here, and it sucks". film.avclub.com. The A.V. Club. Retrieved 2020-12-21. Shot in July, it has the dubious honor of being the first American movie to come out of the pandemic—the first to be conceived, filmed, and released in the current climate.
  7. "Songbird (2020)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved December 17, 2020.
  8. "Songbird Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved December 19, 2020.
  9. Dowd, A.A. (2021-01-13). "The star-powered COVID drama Locked Down is nearly as annoying as, well, lockdown". avclub.com. The A.V. Club. Retrieved 2021-01-13. It was inevitable that films would be made about this significant chapter in global history, in part because a small group of people enduring an extended stay in their own homes is about the only scenario it’s safe and logistically possible to actually shoot right now. But did the results have to start arriving while we’re all still stuck in this nightmare?
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  38. Winship, Lyndsey (2020-08-17). "No standing still: the best of lockdown dance". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-08-18.
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  40. "Banksy follows stay-at-home orders and makes bathroom art during coronavirus crisis". ABC News. 17 April 2020. Archived from the original on 20 April 2020. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
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  53. David Williams. "Covid-19 won't stop NORAD from tracking Santa's Christmas Eve flight around the world". CNN. Retrieved November 22, 2020.
  54. Prescott, Emilia Brock, Pria Mahadevan, Virginia. "Coronavirus Goes Viral: How Online Meme Culture Reflects Our Shared Experience Of A Global Pandemic". www.gpbnews.org. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
  55. Miller, Nick (2 April 2020). "An egg, a Pringle, some Lego: Aussies attempt DIY art masterpieces". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
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  57. "We created the sport of the future". YouTube. Polygon. 2020-11-23. Retrieved 2020-12-19. We spent a few days meticulously crafting the rules, not only to perfect the gameplay, but to make sure the competition would be safe during the pandemic.
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