[1] The song was inspired by a day trip the band members (Boon, bassist Mike Watt, and drummer George Hurley) had taken to Mexico on the Fourth of July, 1982.
[3] In contrast to atypical hardcore punk tempos, the band experiments with neo-norteña sounds built on polka rhythms for "Corona.
[2] In his review of their album, Juan Gutierrez from LA Weekly wrote, "Minutemen's song 'Corona' finally broke big due to Jackass, but it was D. Boon's political lyrics, driving guitar riffs, and George Hurley's frantic drumming that make Double Nickels on the Dime hardcore perfection.
"[5] In March 2020, "Corona" was among countless previously released songs with titles and lyrical themes about the world ending or human survival, prompting an increase in sales and streaming.
The gains "Corona" experienced included a 70% rise in digital song sales and a 26% increase in total on-demand U.S. streams to 63,000.
[11] Canadian singer-songwriter Ford Pier claimed the songwriting approach for "Great Western" from his debut studio album Meconium was inspired by "Corona."
He stated, "I had a desire to try to write a song in that style favoured by your journeyman singer-songwriters of pseudo-literary inclination where an ancillary detail or object within the narrative is selected to be the symbolic fulcrum of the whole thing.