Characteristics of Pro-Environmental Music and its Relationship to Environmental Education

Music has an extraordinary capacity to communicate complex topics and emotions, which makes it a valuable mechanism for environmental education. However, limited literature exists on how music and EE intersect, and how music can be most effectively used within EE. While musicians have informally discussed their pro-environmental work, this study uses a systematic approach to better understand their perspectives. This research investigated how musicians promote pro-environmental perspectives and behaviors through their songs.

The Playlist for the Planet is an album that included environmentally-themed songs, which was released in 2011 by the David Suzuki Foundation. The researchers requested to interview the Canadian artists who contributed to the album, and a total of 14 artists participated. Songs composed by a group of musicians selected one representative to be interviewed. One-on-one interviews with each musician were conducted in a semi-structured format with open-ended questions. Question topics included the musicians' composition choices, perceived audience, environmental beliefs, and perspectives on sustainability and environmental education. The researchers analyzed the data to identify key trends.

The data demonstrated that pro-environmental music is characterized by its artistic and quality dimensions. In this study, the artistic and quality dimensions were further broken down into parameters, or factors that comprised the larger dimensions. The interview data expanded on how the parameter impacted the choices of the musicians. The 4 artistic parameters are best represented as spectrums: 1) simple vs. complex, 2) feel-good vs. not-feel-good, 3) inclusive vs. adversarial, 4) direct vs. ambiguous.

The simple vs. complex spectrum was best highlighted by the difference between creating songs for young children to facilitate factual learning, in comparison to a song attempting to capture emotional complexity in response to an environmental issue. Simple, catchy songs may be effective in helping listeners remember specific information, while more complex songs can better reflect difficult emotions. The artistic choice between simple and complex is applicable to both the musical and lyrical components in songs.

The feel-good vs. not-feel-good spectrum dealt with the emotional messages associated with environmentally-themed music. Musicians interviewed emphasized the importance of curating a sense of reality, while still instilling a sense of hope. Threatening or negative messages may result in action (problem-focused coping), but if the messages are overwhelmingly negative, it could result in emotion-based coping or non-action. Especially with children, musicians believed that the threshold for listening to negative messages is low. Child audiences should be targeted with light-hearted environmental songs primarily.

The inclusive vs. adversarial spectrum regards the musicians' desire to either bring people together from a unifying perspective, or to take a specific or opposing view point. The study also discussed the potential for fostering social bonding and trust when singing in groups. The final spectrum, direct vs. ambiguous refers to the musicians' choice between delivering a concrete message to their audience or leaving space for the audience to interpret the music differently.

The 5 quality factors of environmental music identified by this study include 1) high quality art, 2) relevance to the audience, 3) diversity of composition techniques, 4) first person authenticity and 5) “don't preach.” Interviewees claimed that an audience will not listen to environmentally-themed music unless it is high quality art, regardless of the specific messaging. The second parameter identifies the importance of understanding the intended audience of a given pro-environmental song and making the music relevant to that group. To explore the full range of techniques to create pro-environmental music, artists recommended taking inspiration from other musicians, improvising, or utilizing humor. The last two quality parameters are interconnected by the necessity of genuine first-person messaging, which involves writing about issues that artists directly relate to and avoiding a condescending tone.

The authors of this study recognized that it is almost impossible to determine if listening to a single piece of music had a direct impact on a pro-environmental thought or action, and the impact on a listener strongly depends on their pre-existing environmental knowledge and perspectives. Instead of focusing on the impacts of music, this study was intended to provide a foundation of the qualities of pro-environmental music from the perspectives of artists. Although the musicians represented a range of ages, genders, identities, time in the music industry, fan bases, and experience with environmental engagement, the findings of this study cannot be generalized to the entire population of pro-environmental musicians, due to the small size (14 interviews) and the fact that all musicians were Canadian selected in a non-random process.

Incorporating pro-environmental messages into songs can help bring these messages to a broader audience. This study is useful for those who create pro-environmental music, as it provides a guideline of the most important factors to consider when composing a song. The authors suggest that using music to enhance EE may be beneficial. This study is a resource for EE practitioners who want to incorporate more creative teaching methods through the database Songs for Environmental Education database or employing the framework for how to think more deeply about pro-environmental music.