Now that every list-maker with ears has run down the albums and songs that made 2020 a little easier to endure, let’s take a minute as we approach the end — finally! — to spotlight some of the music that reflected, defined or simply lived down to the appalling crumminess of the past 12 months.
1. Gal Gadot and her celebrity choir, “Imagine”
Give Gal Gadot this: Nine months later, she still hasn’t taken down the video. Perhaps the first agreed-upon hate object of 2020, the Israeli actress’ miserable all-star rendition of John Lennon’s “Imagine” — posted on Instagram in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic — was immediately ridiculed by folks who heard the attempt at we’re-all-in-this-together as a patronizing pat on the shoulder; the generally terrible singing by Gadot and her celebrity friends didn’t help. “Day 6 in self-quarantine,” Gadot says to the camera, scarcely able to believe that regular life has been disrupted for so long. That she had no idea what was coming — that none of us did — makes a stupid thing kind of sad too. (Mikael Wood)
2. David Guetta, tribute to George Floyd
Sampling racial justice oratory for your dance-music track was right up there with licking subway seats or attending a maskless Trump rally as a self-destructive act in 2020. David Guetta, the French prince of doofy pop-EDM, threw caution off the roof of a New York skyscraper as he dropped MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech into a tech-house livestream, where even his fans visibly recoiled. “Last night, I made a special record. This record is in honor of George Floyd, ” Guetta said of the just-murdered Floyd as he cranked his filters and cued up the track’s big drop. “So, shoutout to his family.” (August Brown)
3. Trey Lewis, “Dicked Down in Dallas”
We’re all for a bawdy country song — and with a largely unprintable chorus running down the many ways in which the singer’s ex is enjoying herself, this filthy viral hit certainly qualifies. But as expertly pitched as the songwriting is, “Dicked Down in Dallas” ends up a bummer thanks to its slut-shaming moralism: “I wonder what her daddy’d say,” Lewis sings with a plaintive twang, “Maybe he’s the one to blame.” (MW)