Of all the things we do to live a greener life, you wouldn’t think that the music we listen to is also a big deal. I was thinking about this when I realized how unfriendly touring can be to the earth. From the gas consumed and fast food wrappers… to the plastic CDs themselves. Maybe there are worse things, right? Like tire fires, for starters. Of course, pondering this got the better of me and I started to assume (without doing much research as it sounds like too much work) the huge carbon footprint of popular bands. As a general rule, I tend to boycott (or at least not buy) pop bands. Lots of other people do the same, as cool hunting for independent artists is the new thing to do these days. However, as these bands (and their hitherto unknown record labels) gain popularity, they get airplay on the radio and jump into the consumer cycle. If a major label band doesn’t reject the traditional management involved in the jet-setting arena show, or doesn’t publicly announce what it’s doing to reduce its pressure on resources, it’s likely to be more interested in the outcome. end of this ecological generation of fans.
“Well-known bands like Bon Jovi or U2 may have as many as 7 or 8 sleeper buses employed on their tours to accommodate the large number of road crews required for large venues like stadiums and arenas. However, these famous bands rarely travel on the bus.” bus; they use air travel or limousines, letting their crew members ride the bus. Smaller, lesser-known bands usually ride the bus along with their technical crew.” – from the Sleeper Bus wiki
A boycott of these business model type bands who pack stadiums and release 7 billion CD’s may be in order. So it sounds like I’ll be spending a lot less time listening to Static-X, not to mention Metallica (poor Metallica, everyone picks on them), but I guess it’s not a big deal, since thousands of bands sound like them anyway.
You’d think it would cost less for a band to travel and see their fans than for fans to travel independently to see them, but without doing the math, I’m pretty sure it burns the same amount of fuel for a band to travel by plane. . across the country than it takes for fans to reach them by plane, train and car. Sure, it takes 6 transatlantic days on the Queen Mary II to get from the UK to Boston… but honestly, what else does Bon Jovi have to do? What rush do these acts have to go around the world? Sea travel seems pretty uneventful to me, and if you’re doing it to enjoy your ship, what better, low-impact, cost-effective way to get from point to point than by ocean liner? Unless, of course, time really is money.
Sir Paul McCartney is one exception, Radiohead another. That’s as far as big-name acts go, so you can certainly choose between certain news-worthy bands. Discovering them all is something I would rather give up investigating. Surely, you understand that it is a far greater improvement to my state of mind to boycott the music of big acts than it is to spend time researching news articles, wikis, and blogs to prove what I suspect for sure.
There have been some notes about hacking being low impact. Obvious objections aside, they are right. Waiving legality, they are definitely right. There has been literature on the compact disc life cycle, and that is the smallest reason to go digital. See music and the ambient blogspot for a similar entry on digitization and the authors’ reasons for doing it.
Okay, sure, most big companies offer a fully digital means of getting music to you legally. Sure, you could easily steal the music from big carbon-wasting bands (and be a hero in your own mind), but honestly, what you’re doing is still creating that viral exposure these bands depend on. Think about the end of the media to bring music to the public on a large scale… it’s to come see them live, buy their merch, put on your t-shirt and go see them again and again and again and bring friends I love to see music live and merch is a huge part of the cycle, but honestly if you hear them on rock radio they don’t need your money. If fewer people paid attention to these jet-setting fuel-burning machines, the music industry as an art form would be better off.
Low-impact, low-key acts are some of the highest-tier talent out there as independent, unsigned, or small-label artists. Their t-shirts are printed on organic cotton with soy ink. Their shoes are made from hemp or recycled rubber. They drove a car to see you, and they didn’t expect 10,000 cars to drive to see them. In the meantime, they brought bikes and skateboards to get around the city. They share mp3 with you…
Maybe this is not for you. Maybe you need pop culture to live (weird but probably true) and I might suggest satellite radio of course, the current raison d’être of urban hipsters… -He conceived a pedestal that they are better than most because they ‘support the art’ in doing so. You never see them at shows, and they wouldn’t think anything wrong of taking a plane to see a band that took a plane to some distant city. instead of waiting for them to drive up, or looking for music they like locally.
- The worst thing you could do is buy major label music on CD from Walmart, then buy 3rd party merch and attend stadium shows in the biggest city possible (thanks Hannah Montana for filling our landfills).
- It would be better to catch the artists when they pass through a nearby city (NIN in Toronto from here it’s a quick trip… but I’m too lazy/scared to see if they take a plane or a bus… when is better? eg, since they drive, but they’re not that big) and buy your merch there. He pays for his gas pretty directly and cuts walmart out of his loop.
- The best suggestion is to buy your music online completely digitally, back it up on your removable media, not buy merch from major labels, and see shows in your city. Do what you can to prevent the big recording bands from having to get on a plane. boycott the radio boycott plastic music and keep it digital.
Perhaps people enjoy pop music because of time constraints, as it certainly isn’t because of the quality of the music. It takes time to find the music you like. Some people read about the bands they listen to on Sirius and get new music that way. Some try searching for “similar artists” on Pandora, last.fm, or other music tracking sites. This is good because it opens up your tastes to bands that may not have caught your eye before or may not be on MTV or local radio. I really suggest doing your best to broaden your horizons that way and narrow down the big pop performances. No offense, but why follow what you’ve heard, especially with something as personal as your taste in music?
So relax, slow down. Let each band be an acquired taste. Let him roll around for a while before pounce on him like a hungry cougar. Develop a sense of what you like and what qualities you would like in a band, and certainly what its impact is on the world around you. Low impact music is a choice you can make to make your stainless steel water bottle less of a hat on a pig and a much more true symbol of the changes you’re trying to make in all aspects of your life at the earth.
If this is the past for you, I challenge you to recycle every bit of plastic in your kitchen and go completely glass, metal or wood. Ready? Let’s go!