Music and the Climate Crisis

This chapter provides an analytical overview and interpretation of the literature on music and climate change, with a focus on the climate crisis and the Anthropocene era. Drawing from the sociology of science, the chapter argues that music studies has expanded its field of inquiry to include climate change, but it has not reckoned with the new era of the Anthropocene. Interest in climate change is growing in the subfield of environmental music studies known as ecomusicology. There, climate change is framed as a cause of introspection, anxiety, and protest among concerned musicians but not as a global crisis and a new era. The discipline’s relation to the Anthropocene mirrors the situation in musical life in that environmentalism is positioned as a peripheral issue or an issue of special interest. Countless musicians have recorded a climate song and signed climate campaigns, and many festivals have sustainability efforts, but the Anthropocene is not a central theme in everyday popular music cultures. This may indicate a form of neglect, but it may also indicate that music retains value by keeping a distance from the unsettling realities of the Anthropocene. Thus, new ethical ambiguities arise for music in this era of global environmental degradation, injustice, and economic inequality. The chapter argues that music studies can get into closer contact with the public conversation around the climate crisis and develop its interpretative frames further by drawing from current broader conversations around climate in the humanities and social sciences.