Coronavirus Spurs Surge In Sales And Streams Of DISTURBED's 'Down With The Sickness'

According to Billboard, DISTURBED's "Down With The Sickness" and AT THE DRIVE-IN's "Quarantined" are among the songs which have seen a surge in sales and streams due to the fact that lyrics tie in to the coronavirus pandemic that is spreading across the globe.

"Down With The Sickness" experienced a 31% bump in digital song sales to 1,000 downloads sold, according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data. The track also had a a 3% gain to 2.6 million U.S. streams. "Quarantined" was up 70% in U.S. streams to 7,000.

Not 30 seconds into the original 1999 recording of "Down With The Sickness", DISTURBED lead singer David Draiman screams "ooh-wah-ah-ah-ah." He later told MTV about how his staccato vocals came about: "That noise just kind of came one day. The song originally was written and it just had a pause. Mike [Wengren, drums], his beat is just so tribal, and it just kind of made me feel like an animal." While the meaning behind the lyrics has been debated, Draiman said the lyrics were merely inspired by personal history and not a literal interpretation of his own upbringing. He told the Phoenix New Times: "I'm really talking about the conflict between the mother culture of society, who's beating down the child yearning for independence and individuality, and the submission of the child."

DISTURBED is scheduled to celebrate the 20th anniversary of "The Sickness" on "The Sickness 20th Anniversary Tour". The trek is set to kick off on July 15 in Maryland Heights, Missouri, hitting amphitheaters before wrapping up on September 12 in Auburn, Washington. STAIND and BAD WOLVES will serve as special guests on the tour.

In 2010, DISTURBED celebrated the tenth anniversary of the release of "The Sickness" by reissuing it with exclusive b-sides and expanded artwork, as well as a first-time-ever vinyl edition.

Released on March 7, 2000, "The Sickness" is DISTURBED's best-selling album to date, thanks to such hit singles as "Down With The Sickness", "Stupify" and "Voices".

Guitarist Dan Donegan told The Pulse Of Radio that the band never expected "Down With The Sickness" or "The Sickness" to do as well as they did. "I think 'Down With The Sickness' was like the seventh most downloaded song that was recorded in the '90s," he said. "It was like in a list of like four Michael Jackson songs and NIRVANA's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' and we were in the Top 10 of those songs. And I was just blown away by those statistics. Those are big numbers there. I mean, we're just overwhelmed to think that we could go from a garage band in the south side of Chicago to selling a lot of albums and having a fan base and making a career out of it."