Environmentalism in music
[8] Songwriter Peter La Farge released As Long as the Grass Shall Grow in 1963, a collection of native American songs discussing environmental destruction.
[10] The inaugural Earth Day and founding of Greenpeace,[11] the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill and passing of the National Environmental Policy Act were influential on music in the early 1970s.
[3] The Beach Boys also explored environmental concerns, particularly pollution, in Surf's Up (1971) songs "Don't Go Near the Water"[10] and "A Day in the Life of a Tree".
[11] 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 production of the music video had an environmental theme, showing images of animal cruelty, deforestation, pollution, poverty, and war.
[19] In 2007, a massive concert entitled Live Earth was held in several locations around the world simultaneously to raise awareness and provoke action on climate change.
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 were donated to environmental charity organizations.
[26] Grimes released a climate-themed album Miss Anthropocene in 2020, and 2019 Lil Dicky charity single "Earth" featured numerous celebrities and attracted considerable social media attention.
[27] Billie Eilish's first album featured the song "All Good Girls Go to Hell,"[28] which was meant to bring attention to humans inability to stop climate change.
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.
Firmly grounded in the realities of slavery and the systemic discrimination that followed, the Blues exemplified by artists like Roosevelt Charles was a reflection of rural labor and connection to the land.
[33] Later versions of the Blues shifted to faster tempos and themes of urban life as communities of colour migrated to cities like Chicago, Detroit, and New York.
Geographer Clyde Woods claims that 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.
[33] While composers have often used nature as their inspiration, modern classical from the period since World War II has seen an ever increasing amount of music in this regard.
Guthrie and his collaborator Pete Seeger would go on to release numerous environmentally conscious songs and were involved in advocacy for reducing pollution in rivers.
[41] 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.
[48][24] Australian rock band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard released a climate change themed thrash metal album Infest the Rats' Nest in 2019.
Poly Styrene and X-Ray Spex explored pollution on "The Day the World Turned Day-Glo", as did The Clash on "London Calling" and the Dead Kennedys on "Cesspools in Eden".
This includes the Barenaked Ladies, Bonnie Raitt, Cloud Cult, Dave Matthews Band, Don Henley, Drake, Green Day, Guster, Jack Johnson, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, KT Tunstall, Massive Attack,[62] Metallica, Moby, Pearl Jam, Perry Farrell, Phish, Radiohead,[63] The Roots, Sarah Harmer, Sheryl Crow, Thom Yorke, Willie Nelson, and many others.
[64][65] In 2009, Björk and Sigur Rós streamed a free concert to raise the profile of opposition to the Kárahnjúkar Hydropower Plant over its environmental impact in their native Iceland.
[66] Greenpeace have worked with musicians throughout their history to promote environmental causes,[67] including a series of 2015 "orchestral activism" protests against petroleum exploration in the Arctic.
[34] Marine conservation activist organisation Sea Shepherd have numerous high-profile supporters in the music industry that have financed their operations and vessels, including Rick Rubin, Anthony Kiedis, The Red Paintings and Gojira.
[68] During the 2019–20 Australian bushfire season, numerous musicians raised money for fire relief efforts and wildlife rescue operations, including three live albums released by King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard.
[61] Radiohead have shipped musical gear by freight rather than via air and Jack Johnson added solar panels and insulation to his studio to improve its energy efficiency.
[79] They utilized visual effects which required less explosive charge and new formulas to reduce harmful chemicals,[80] while unavoidable emissions were offset according to Oxford's principles.
