Sex, Drugs, Rock n Roll and Sustainability?

Posted on January 21, 2010 by derek

thomvideocontr It’s not very often that you hear about the green exploits of musicians, since the music industry often conjures up images of limo’s, sprawling estates, MTV cribs, trashing hotel rooms / musical instruments, and (formerly) profiteering record companies with their massive marketing budgets. Maybe the words sustainable and popular music, don’t seem to fit as snugly together as say, toy and car, but that may change sometime in the future.

And honestly, we’re not that far off! For every natural disaster or issue that gets into the limelight, we get a benefit concert of sorts, televised live to all over the world (e.g. Hope for Haiti). Now I know some of you may be thinking that a lot of the people that perform at these events only do it for the publicity, but hey, it’s probably a lot better than this right?

I know I can’t change your mind about the entire music industry, but here’s a list of some musicians who do dabble in eco / social consciousness:

Bjork has released a documentary entitled Natura – Summer (2008). The film “focuses on the current environmental issues that face Iceland and includes interviews with Björk along with many other well-known Icelandic figures. All proceeds from the documentary will benefit the Nattura Campaign”.
Dave Matthews Band’s tours have apparently been carbon neutral since 1991.
Love them or hate them, Coldplay, in conjunction with their album X&Y, were selling 200 limited editions of the Solio, a portable solar charger. Available at Choose.
David Gilmour’s (Pink Floyd) solo album “On An Island”, was the first Columbia Records release to be manufactured under CarbonNeutral guidelines, through an arrangement with The Carbon Neutral Company.
KT Turnstall also has an arrangement with The Carbon Neutral Company, so that her albums are carbon neutral. She also tours in a biodiesal bus.
Moby is a supporter of PETA and the Humane Society, and is also a vegan.
The Beastie Boys allow you to trade in your cell phone for free merchandise at recycling booths at their concerts.
Although Green Day wasn’t named after anything eco, they do support the Move America Beyond Oil campaign, and we seem to see a lot of them on TV performing at benefit concerts.
Pearl Jam donated $100,000 from their 2006 tour to a total of 9 organisations working on climate change.
The Roots have given away graffiti’d and autographed compost bins, and are fans of PETA.
Jack Johnson co-founded the Kokua Hawaii Foundation, which is a nonprofit that supports environmental education in Hawaii’s schools and communities. He also wrote a song about the 3R’s.
Radiohead frontman, Thom Yorke played a part in The Big Ask Campaign, is a vegan, wrote an album inspired by climate change, and more recently, decided to crash COP15.

Well there you have it. It is said that consumers will one day in the near future, demand that product manufacturers abide by stringent ecological and ethical standards, so why not for pop music as well?