Greening Your Ears With Low-Impact Music
Of all the things we do to lead a greener life, you would not think that the music we listen too is a big issue. I was thinking this over when I realized of how earth un-friendly touring can be. From the gas consumed, and the fast food wrappers… down to the plastic CD’s themselves. Perhaps there are worse things, right? Like tire-fires, to start with. Of course, mulling this over got the best of me, and I began to assume (without researching much, as it sounds too much like work) the large carbon footprint of popular bands. As a general rule, I tend to boycott (or at least do not purchase) pop bands.
Many other people do the same, as independent artist cool-hunting is the novel thing to do these days. Yet, as these bands (and their hitherto unknown labels) gain popularity, they get broadcast on the radio and vaulted into the consumer cycle. If a major label band is not rejecting traditional management involving the jet-set arena show, or is not publicly announcing what they are doing to reduce their pressure on resources, is likely more interested in the bottom line over this green generation of fans.
“Well known bands such as Bon Jovi or U2 can have as many as 7 or 8 sleeper buses employed on their tours to accommodate the many road crew required for large venues such as stadiums and arenas. These famous bands rarely travel on the bus though; they use air transport or limousines, leaving their crew members to travel by bus. Smaller, less well known bands will usually travel on the bus along with their tech crew.” – from Sleeper Bus wiki
A boycott of these business-model type bands that sell out arenas and press 7 billion CD’s may be in order. So, it looks like i will be spending a lot less time listening to Static-X, not to mention Metallica (poor Metallica, everyone picks on them) – but I suppose it’s no biggie, as a thousand bands sound just like them anyway.
