"Coronavirus" By Tom MacDonald- A Musical Analysis

When we were counting down to celebrate the New Year for 2020, I don't think anyone could have prepared for what was to come. 

2020 will undoubtingly go down in history as one of the craziest years, not just for Americans but for the whole world. 

When Covid-19 first made its way into the news here in the US, there was so much confusion and a lot of resistance to the change happening in our world. 

Thankfully, we have musical artists like Tom MacDonald. 

However, many disagree with me. 'This artist refuses to conform to thesocietal norm' and it leaves listeners shocked at first', says Denise Baboukis from Sam Ash Spotlight.

He is known to revolve his music around controversial topics, such as politics, religion, conspiracy theories, and many more sensitive subjects. I consider myself a fan, but he has produced a few songs that I don't necessarily agree with. Nonetheless, Tom writes his lyrics, composes his music, and he also produces his music.

Shortly after the lockdown was put into place in the United States, during March 2020, Tom MacDonald came out with a single track titled 'Coronavirus'. But MacDonald took a much softer approach to this song than all the other music he has done. It was greatly received by his loyal fans and caught the attention of many others. This song reached so many because it was so relatable for everyone in the world during these times of uncertainty. 

Give it a listen...

Lyrics:

'I don't know what to think about this virus

It started in China, now everybody in America's hiding

There's no groceries 'cause people start to panic and buy it

The shelves are empty, the ones with plenty, already stockpiling

 

Y'all making memes, think it's funny? Wait a week till the riots

Wait a month till the only way to eat is be violent

It's not the sickness that's scary, it's all the people who're violent

The government's lying, they're tryna keep us calm through the sirens

 

We know it's for real, and now all the pharmaceutical giants

Don't have the cure that they can sell you, so now everyone's dying

There's no vaccines and medication made that can fight it

I guess it's time to pray to God, we can't rely on the science

 

And everyone around me in a mask and some gloves

The stock market crashed, and the banks 'bout to bust

Tell us "Sanitize our hands, this will pass, it's a bug, stay inside, you'll be fine"

Till we're trapped there for months

 

It's a ghost town, we're in this together

They're closing all the stores down, we're heading for shelter

It's a war, now they'll always remember

We're locking all our doors down, we're sticking together

 It's a ghost town

This a pandemic, but we don't listen to the news

'Cause they lied to us for years, so how we know that this the truth?

And most of us are young enough to think that we're immune

So we just pass it on to people who won't survive it like you

 

It's either worse than they're telling us or it's nothing at all

But the schools are shut down and ghost towning them all

They go quarantine the city, block the road out of dodge

Then tell us leaving our homes is actually breaking the law

 

This is just the beginning, you know it's gotta get worse

If the doctors get sick, the hospitals won't work

The conspiracy theories all sound like facts, that's for sure

But the fact is, we're trapped on this planet called Earth

 

And the bleach gone, the bread gone, the water sold out

The meat gone, the milk gone, the pasta sold out

Don't leave anything for anyone, you hoard it for yourself

You'd rather tell them "Go to hell" than be a man and go and help

It's a ghost town, we're in this together

They're closing all the stores down, we're heading for shelter

It's a war, now they'll always remember

We're locking all our doors down, we're sticking together

It's a ghost town

We're hoping for the best, but we're preparing for the worst

There's one thing we're not scared of: it's hard work

We're up against an enemy that doesn't have a face

There's no bombs we can drop, there's nowhere we can aim

 

There's no soldiers to stop with a tank at the gates

There's no cure that we've got or a pill we can take

There's no food, it's been bought, the truth is we're afraid

We sit inside our rooms, and we pray

 

It's a ghost town, we're in this together

They're closing all the stores down, we're heading for shelter

It's a war, now they'll always remember

We're locking all our doors down, we're sticking together

It's a ghost town'

During times of uncertainty, these lyrics seemed to reach out to me, like a helping hand. We have seen the best and the worst of people in the light of all this madness. I feel like this song was made to help give some peace of mind, knowing that we are not alone in this situation, the whole world is it this together. Brandon Long from PopHorror.com also agrees with my views, he states, 'this song offers some words of encouragement and hopes that we will get through this together.'

 Meter:

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find any sheet music for this song, considering it is so new. That and the song was made with MIDI, which is a collection of hardware technology that combines a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and related audio devices to help create and edit music. So I had to do some studying and I believe this song is played in the 6/8 meter count. It is a complex meter that helped me exclude common time, 4/4 count. From there, I noticed it always had an emphasis on the first count and the fourth count. Also, the feeling of the beat that propels you into the next section confirmed, it's a 6/8 meter count meter.

Updated: 2/22/2021: I was corrected and I was mistaken. It is played in a 4/4 count.

Pitch:

The pitch to this single is another example of why this song draws in an everyday listener. Throughout the beginning of the song, there is an oscillation of high and low pitches played to draw in the listener. Slowly, the instrumentals and pitch goes silent to focus on the lyrics then the pitch lifts and pulls your attention into the next verse. Then Tom adds different scale variations throughout the entirety of the track, to keep the audiences' interest. When I was focusing on the pitch of the soundtrack, it felt as if I was being pulled gently through the emotions Tom felt while writing this song. These emotions felt eerily familiar to what I felt during the lockdown months.

Rhythm:

I feel the best way to categorize the rhythm to this particular song would be silence with a variety. It is full of contrasting rhythmic textures, it uses accents, a bit of syncopation, and takes advantage of silence in specific points in the track, all with the accompaniment of very powerful lyrics. It begins with the pitch fluctuation then the rhythm builds with more beats and the accompaniment of Tom's rapping. The accents and silence throughout the verses and chorus lines help drive home certain aspects of the lyrics. Since the rhythm softens, the syncopation helps the beat become more prevalent during the accompaniment of the chorus lyrics. MacDonald was able to create a very intricate rhythm and beat to emphasize his message he wanted to send out to the world. 

Form:

I enjoyed this song because of how well MacDonald structured his form for this particular number. In his other songs, the form is not Tom's main objective, rather than just getting his point across. When he made 'Coronavirus', he was not looking for a reaction, like his other songs but rather a connection. MacDonald showed his knowledge of music when he wrote these lyrics. He begins with a quick but powerful introduction, then breaks into a suggestive verse. Then he pulls it together in the chorus, which a lot of people can relate to. Then another strongly-worded verse followed by the familiar chorus lines, again. After that, Tom begins to conclude the song with an outro verse and finally finished with the chorus lines. I believe, he made the form for this song more common so that it was something familiar to the general public. Tom made this song to reach everyone, so there is a sense of unity in the world. And during these times of confusion, I think it is happily welcomed. 

Sources:

1.) Tom MacDonald | Artist Interview | Sam Ash Spotlight By Denise Baboukis; Copyright 2019 | All Rights Reserved | Sam Ash Music Marketing, LLC

2.) L.A. Indie Artist Tom MacDonald Tackles Current Viral Events By Brandon Long; Copyright 2016-Present, PopHorror.com A Jamil Ventures Partnership.

Opposing Opinions:

Like I said at the beginning of this blog, Tom MacDonald is a very controversial hip-hop rap artist. I found just as many negative opinions on Tom and this song as much as I found positive. However, I do not agree with most of the negative and extreme reviews, I am not one to force my own opinion on someone. So, feel free to read some of the opposing opinions, and make your own judgment:

Rapper Tom MacDonald's Song 'Coronavirus' Might be Worse Than The Actual Coronavirus