Music for Environmental Advocacy + Playlist
BY MARINA DELUCA, GROUP FOR THE EAST END ENVIRONMENTAL ASSOCIATE
Music has been the soundtrack of change and continues to serve an important role in advocacy. Successful advocacy requires more than just a good idea; it requires bringing people together to support your mission to be effective. However, agreeing upon anything can be a difficult task because we all see the world differently. We often assess the world around us through the lens of our personality and experiences. But I believe music can bring you to see the world through a different perspective and derive new understandings of the world around you.
Musicians and artists can turn complex issues into condensed and emotionally truthful packages, bringing people to view the world in a way they hadn't previously. A great example of this is the song Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell. While there are other spectacular songs written about the environment, I believe this song uniquely articulates environmental values to the non-environmentalist. This song expresses what we have to lose if we fail to protect what we have, and draws upon the basic human theme of not knowing the value of what you had until it is gone - something everyone can relate to. Great songwriting can make people who may have never thought about the environment before value it and find themselves more engaged in environmentalism.
We live in a world where people say, show them the facts and they will change their minds. However, based on my experience, this statement does not hold true very often. In most cases, individuals need to understand something on an emotional level to change their firmly held opinions. Music and the arts are crucial to the change-making process because they provide opportunities for people to process complex issues and develop perspective through a more personal lens of feeling as well as thinking. This new perspective, in turn, helps to build broader interest and drive the kind of passionate support that can fuel an entire social or environmental movement. Thus, music and the arts are necessary to garner a passionate commitment to a cause, making these mediums a crucial and often undervalued component of successful advocacy. So, as you move forward, remember to take time to value the arts as they are a cornerstone to the change we wish to see in the world.
