The sounds of nature can be soothing and moving (see the post Nature Appreciation). Quite logically, many artists included recordings made in nature into their music. Examples can be found across all genres and times (see also here). Kate Bush included whale songs in her 1978 single “Moving”, and she imitates a pigeon with the piano and even sings along with a blackbird in her 2005 album Ariel.
Just recently, there seems to be an upsurge in artists’ interest in the sounds of nature, possibly answering to the current trend of increasing nature awareness (BMU 2020).
These examples show that nature can be featured in various genres, even in Techno and Metal:
Hatikwa – Lonely Forest
(a techno track that builds on sounds of a forest)
The Neighborhood – Rain
(an alternative rock band used recordings of rain for an interlude)
Gojira – Flying Whales
(a metal track including whale songs; it dreams about ‘flying with the whales’)
Metal tracks may not sound soothing to many of us, and the aim of this genre is more to stimulate or provoke. Especially death metal also deals with dark topics like death and suicide. Picking up a different kind of dark topic, environmentalist metal addresses climate change, environmentalism and nature. The band Fit for an Autopsy, for example, introduces their song When the Bulb Burn Out with a very explicit reference to climate change: “Every week we’re seeing new and undeniable climate events. Evidence that accelerated climate change is here right now. Droughts are intensifying. Our oceans are acidifying. Methane levels rising up in the ocean floor”.
Another very impressive example is the song and video My Heart and The Ocean, produced by the band Heaven Shall Burn together with the NGO Sea Shepherd. The lyrics express the rage felt about the careless exploitation of marine wildlife. And in their song Sacred, the Australian metalcore band In Hearts Wake gets to the heart of the current crisis, when they sing:
We cannot have
Infinite economic growth
On a finite planet
Disengage everything
That you were ever told
We must restore the balance
And believe.
Especially for teenagers, music, including lyrics and music videos, is a means to form identity (American Academy of Pediatrics 2009). In this respect, it gives hope to observe these new forms of nature related music. They may be an expression of and a trigger for the rise of a new generation that is ready to make a change.
This post is joint work of Lisa, Tim and Tina Heger.
References:
American Academy of Pediatrics. (2009). Policy statement: Impact of music, music lyrics, and music videos on children and youth. Pediatrics, 124(5), 1488-1494. doi:10.1542/peds.2009-2145 [link]
Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Natur und nucleare Sicherheit, BMU (2020). Naturbewusstsein 2019. Bevölerungsumfrage zu Natur und biologische Vielfalt. Retrieved from https://www.bmu.de/fileadmin/Daten_BMU/Pools/Broschueren/naturbewusstseinsstudie_2019_bf.pdf
Image sources:
© Lisa Heger, CC BY-SA 4.0
© Hatikwa
© The Neighborhood
© Gojira
© Fit for an Autopsy
© Heaven Shall Burn
