Quarantine Classics

Many cities are using stay at home orders to contain the Coronavirus and that leaves people with little to do in their free time. With concerts and sporting events also cancelled, many celebrities took to the internet to get engaged with their fans and other celebrities. Live streams with artists such as Tory Lanez on “Quarantine Radio”, DJ D-Nice weekend DJ mixes, and many others caught the attention of thousands. With these live streams getting over 150,000 viewers, many come back, and in even larger numbers. Brynn Trussell, sophomore, says when she has nothing else to do and a celebrity is live, she joins.

“When I am absolutely bored and finished all my school work, if a celebrity is live, I would watch them. I like to watch Quarantine Radio because they ask a lot of funny questions and also gives me something to enjoy during the pandemic. He had many big celebrities like Chris Brown, Justin Bieber, and others, so I enjoy them. Them going live and doing the same things we are shows that everyone is pretty much in the same boat,” said Trussell.

Shopping for clothes and groceries has taken place online since the rise of the pandemic and schooling has made its transition to online as well. Rappers and DJs have to find ways to make money in their industry since the clubs and concerts are not considered to be essential. Celebrity DJ, DJ D-Nice, began a live stream on Instagram and started mixing older music from the 90’s and 80’s a which brought in views and comments from George Lopez, Michelle Obama, and Bernie Sanders. DJ D-Nice’s club-style mixing gave his live streams the name “Club Quarantine”. Senior, Joshua Harwell, says he watched the live stream with his parents and it is quality content for adults also. The weekly stream does more than serve as entertainment for viewers, but also as a means of income for the DJ.

“My parents watched the live stream the first day he went live and he gained over 100,000 viewers the first day. To me, that was impressive. I joined on my own the second day and he almost hit 200,000 viewers. My parents donated to him because with everything going on, that might be his only way of making money. People send money to his Cash App and he goes live almost every weekend, so that’s probably his way of staying afloat,” said Harwell.

In recent weeks, many rappers have took to Instagram live to go against each other and play their hit songs in a game called “VS”. The most memorable game of “VS” would be between Lil Jon and T-Pain. Viewers enjoyed them playing their own songs but also songs that they helped collaborate on. Junior, Jordan Egbuna, says it is fun to see what your favorite artist’s biggest hits are and also other songs they helped create.

“I saw the live and it was quite entertaining. They would play throwbacks that I forgot I liked and would go listen to them after the stream. It’s cool because sometimes I would see other rappers talk about it and who they should go against. It is just a good time, knowing it’s entertainment and that more could be coming,” said Egbuna.

With several celebrities interacting with their supporters via livestream and other platforms, their fans are satisfied with the new form of entertainment as a replacement for boredom.