The music industry was forced into a gridlock when the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020. Touring was halted, and recording sessions were canceled as social-distancing measures were put in place. It all begged the question: What now?

For some, this presented a prime opportunity to make more detailed plans for the future. For instance, Robert Plant revealed in 2021 that he'd spent much of the lockdown reorganizing his office, so to speak.

"All the adventures that I've ever had with music and tours, album releases, projects that didn't actually get finished or whatever it is — I ...  itemized them all and put everything into some semblance of order," he explained during an episode of his Digging Deep podcast.

For others, quarantines afforded something even more precious: uninterrupted time to write new music. Virtual meeting technology took off, and suddenly collaborating with band members and other musicians across the world was possible again.

Sammy Hagar and Joe Satriani ended up stitching together songs using parts recorded remotely. Others, like Tedeschi Trucks Band and Neil Young and Crazy Horse, created pandemic bubbles, working within small groups in isolated areas. "Once we did get together," Derek Trucks told UCR in 2022, "I think there was so much pent-up energy from being stuck at home, not playing and not gigging, that there was this real joy of writing and hanging and creating."

It will likely be years before the full impact of the pandemic on the world of recorded music is understood. Below, in no particular order, are the rock albums born out of lockdown.

Lockdown Albums: 24 Records That Wouldn't Exist Without COVID

Not even a global pandemic could stop these artists from making new music. 

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