Environmentalism in music

Environmentalism has occasionally been a topic in music, primarily since the 1940s. However, the earliest songs including environmentalist topics can be traced back to the 19th century, earliest of which is "Woodman! Spare that Tree!" by George Pope Morris and Henry Russell.^[1] Ecomusicologists (musicologists and ethnomusicologists focusing on music and environmental issues) and music educators are increasingly emphasizing the intersections of music and nature, and musicking for ecological activism.^[2][3]

This topic was significantly more relevant in music in the '40s after World War II and has continually progressed over time. There are many artists across the world that advocate environmentalism such as the Barenaked Ladies, Bonnie Raitt, Cloud Cult, Dave Matthews Band, Don Henley, Drake, Gojira,^[4] Gorillaz, Green Day, Guster, Jack Johnson, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, KT Tunstall, Metallica, Moby, Pearl Jam, Perry Farrell, Phish, The Roots, Sarah Harmer, Sheryl Crow, Thom Yorke, Willie Nelson, and many others.^[5][6]

In addition to being a topic of music, Environmentalism has been increasingly prevalent among artists and the music industry itself. An example is the push for CDs to be packaged in cardboard rather than plastic. Also, many music festivals such as Bonnaroo make significant efforts to be sustainable.^[7]

Gospel and the Blues[]

In the days of the African slave trade to the United States the role of the environment was closely tied to spirituality and agricultural labor. Enslaved generations born in Africa passed down beliefs in divinity, superstition, and human connection to the natural world. "Africans believed in the interconnectedness of the human, spiritual, and environmental realms and felt that harm toward or care for one necessarily affected the others."^[8] These influences were expressed in the form of Spirituals or Gospel music and generally performed in either "praise houses" or in outdoor communion called "brush arbor meetings" or "bush meetings" ^[9] This style of music was a way to authentically express the black experience in America, which in many ways meant reflecting on suffering. In reaction to this, references to heaven in gospel refer to it as a natural or pastoral landscape.^[10]

The Blues which came out of the south at the beginning of the 1900s spoke on the agrarian and impoverished lifestyles of the African American community. Firmly grounded in the realities of slavery and the systemic discrimination that followed, the Blues exemplified by artist like Roosevelt Charles was a reflection of rural labor and connection to the land.^[11] Later versions of the Blues shifted to faster tempos and themes of urban life as Communities of Color migrated to cities like Chicago, Detroit, and New York. Some historians denote the dukes as an expression of reliance in the face of a continued struggle against white oppression. Thereby the Blues derived community amongst the minority in shared experience. Geographer, Clyde Woods, claims by citing artists like Robert Johnson that the Blues as well as Hip-Hop represent sustainability ethics by promoting the ‘co-operative rural and urban land forms’ through communities as sacred outside of their material value.^[12]

Popular music from the 1960s–2000s[]

In the 1960s and 1970s a growing number of popular music inspired by the counterculture movement reflected anti-war sentiments of peace and harmony. "Big Yellow Taxi" by Joni Mitchell was a song about environmental degradation with lyrics such as "They paved Paradise, put up a parking lot". Her reference to DDT in the song is a reflection of the times as Rachel Carson's 1962 book Silent Spring had brought the dangers of DDT into the spotlight. John Denver, a country and folk singer often sang about the wilderness of Colorado with popular songs such as "Rocky Mountain High" and "Take Me Home, Country Roads".

Black Sabbath's song "War Pigs" is an anti-war song that was extremely influential to young Americans across the nation. Many consider the wave of environmentalism in the era to be the foundation of metal music in the world. A song titled "Blackened" by Metallica is another song that supports environmentalism as is said in the lyrics "Blackened is the end, winter it will send, throwing all you see, into obscurity." This song says that if war and rampage continue, the earth around us will die. Environmentalism is still prevalent today as it continues to shape our way of life and forms of music.

In 1995 singer Michael Jackson came out with the hit "Earth Song" which was about environmental and animal welfare. The production of the music video had an environmental theme, showing images of animal cruelty, deforestation, pollution, poverty and war. Jackson and the world's people unite in a spiritual chant—"Earth Song"—which summons a force that heals the world. Using special effects, time is reversed so that life returns, war ends, and the forests regrow. The video closes with a request for donations to Jackson's Heal the World Foundation.^[13][14] The clip was shown infrequently in the United States.^[15]

In 2007, a massive concert entitled Live Earth (2007 concert) was held across the world to raise awareness and provoke action on climate change. Smaller concerts with similar themes have also been held around the world. An example is the Earth Music Festival which was held in Australia in 2010.^[16]

In 2009 Disney created a campaign called Disney's Friends for Change which helped to promote an environmental message. A song called Send it On recorded by Disney singers Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato, the Jonas Brothers and Selena Gomez was produced and the profits donated to environmental charity organizations. The song debuted at number nine on Billboard's Hot Digital Songs which led to it making into the Billboard Hot 100, issue dated August 29, 2009.^[17] "Send It On" debuted and peaked at number twenty in the Hot 100.^[18][19] It then fell to number twenty-one, and stayed on for three more weeks before falling off.^[20]

A rock club in New York City called Wetlands Preserve served as both a performance venue and a hub for environmentalist activism from 1989 to 2001.^[21][22]

The primary view perpetuated by mainstream versions of environmental music from the 1960s onward have foregrounded the idyllic cohabitation of natural landscapes and humankind. The shorthand being the pastoral mode. However the pastoral mode has been used to perpetuate beliefs of a separate and untouched wilderness, also well as anti urbanism. These beliefs do not reflect critical environmental justice practices, which emphasize multidimensionality and intersectionality in issues relating to human health and environmental degradation.^[23] The pastoral mode also excluded experiences of minority groups that are integrally a part of pastoral landscapes, as well as face the effects of food and heat deserts, increased pollution, unclean water, and more in urban areas.^[24]

Music since World War II[]

After a radioactive isotope (Strontium-90) was found in cows milk in 1959, the concern for the environmental effects of the nuclear arms race increased. This sparked songs about the invisibility of environmental effects like radioactive isotopes. In his song "Mack the Bomb," Pete Seeger wrote a comparison between a shark and Strontium-90, explaining that the threat of a shark is at least visible, unlike radioactive isotopes.^[25] In 1962, Malvina Reynolds also wrote a song called "What Have They Done to the Rain?", which was inspired by above-ground nuclear testing, and how it was putting Strontium-90 into the air, then into soil through rain, which is how it got into cows and their milk.^[26]

Pete Seeger released what is considered the first environmentalist album, entitled "God Bless the Grass" in 1966. The 1960s produced a large number of environmental-focused songs, primarily due to the popularization of folk music and the musicians that penned many environmental protest songs, in that genre.^[27]

Modern classical music[]

While composers have often used nature as their inspiration, the period since World War II has seen an ever increasing amount of music in this regard. Composers such as John Cage and Olivier Messiaen began using patterns in nature as their materials in Musical Composition.^[28][29] One example of Cage's use of environmental sounds is the piece Child of Tree. This work involves amplifying a cactus and pea pod shakers in addition to other instruments chosen by the performer.^[30] John Luther Adams writes music directly from his surroundings in Alaska.^[31] He is an environmentalist who has written and discussed the role that artists can play in combating Global Warming.^[32] An example of his music is the piece The Place Where You Go to Listen. This work involves a sound and light installation that is "controlled by natural events occurring in real time."^[33]

The was founded on the theme of preserving the environment. Countries surrounding the Baltic Sea are brought together to solve problems with the body of water. Music "serves as a good platform" in discussions of solutions which can only be solved jointly.^[34]

Environmental Justice in Hip-Hop and RnB[]

In the 1970s along with grievances over the Vietnam War and Civil Rights activism, environmentalism was in the public eye as a political point of unrest. Within the African American Community the transition into RnB emphasized the importance of these issues. Artist Marvin Gaye released an album in 1971 titled “What's Going On” wherein he criticizes the United States role in the Vietnam War, as well as the social and environmental degradation of inner city residences.^[35]

The birth of hip-hop in the 1970s out of the primarily black, lower class communities in the South Bronx was also a reflection on issues related to race, poverty, violence, and injustice. Environmental hip-hop is just an extension of the issues faced by communities of color. Artists like Mos Def in his song “New World Water”, released in 1999, use the medium to break down the struggles in urban areas for some neighborhoods to have access to clean water.^[36]

Groups like the Hip-Hop Caucus and Grind for the Green continue to promote increased advocacy for environmental issues in communities of color through the medium of Hip-Hop.^[37] These groups have found that using a platform like Hip Hop to engage youth resonates. Removing environmental injustice from academia and into oral performance historically better promotes shared experiences and shared interest.

See also[]

• Climate change in popular culture
• Folk music
• Protest song
• Woodstock

References[]

Further reading[]

• Berger, Bruce (1978). "Science, Environmentalism, and Music". The North American Review, Vol. 263, No. 1 (Spring, 1978), pp. 64–66. University of Northern Iowa (subscription required)
• Devine, Kyle (2019). Decomposed: The Political Ecology of Music. MIT Press. ISBN 9780262537780
• Menezes Bastos, Rafael José de (2012). "Musicality and Environmentalism in the Rediscovery of Eldorado:An Anthropology of the Raoni-Sting Encounter" in Bob W. White (ed.) Music and Globalization: Critical Encounters, pp. 75–92 . Indiana University Press. ISBN 0253357128
• Sturgeon, Noël (2009). Environmentalism in Popular Culture: Gender, Race, Sexuality, and the Politics of the Natural. University of Arizona Press. ISBN 0816525811