“By September, the day breaks with little help from birds. A song sparrow may give a single half-hearted song, a woodcock may twitter overheard en route to his daytime thicket, a barred owl may terminate the night’s argument with one last wavering call, but few other birds have anything to say or sing about”
– Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac: Sketches Here and There
When thinking about what I would like for my theme to be, I decided it would be a good idea to make a list of my interests. The first one was music, then photography, then writing, and it went on and on… After spending a lot of time reflecting on my passions, I decided that music was indeed my favorite. Then came the question, “How on earth do I connect music and environmental science?” After reading and asking around, a few ideas came to mind. The first one being that music is indeed a result of its environment. Jazz and pop-punk came about simply because of urbanism and poverty. The relationship works both ways in that the environment is affected by music. Music festivals, I learned, actually have a huge impact on the environment. Thousands of people jam out to music for days on end unaware of the waste they leave behind in the form of clothing, plastic, paper, and a huge “carbon footprint” (1). Then again, how unaware are we really? Apparently 84% of festival goers are aware of their environmental impact (5). Luckily, there are organizations such as A Greener Festival who are aware of this and are looking for ways to better the situation. I definitely plan on using them as a resource over the next few months (4). One other way I found a relationship between music and the environment was by looking at animals. A lot of animals around of use different pitches and patterns to communicate with each other and it’s so fascinating! These are a few things that I hope to touch on more as the semester progresses.
Anywho, a lot of my summer was spent commuting between San Antonio and Austin for an internship with a music website. While in Austin, both during the summer and during the school year, I quickly learned that Austinites loved two things: music and the outdoors (and organic, gluten-free, and vegan lampshades but that’s besides the point). There were plenty of music events held outside such as “Blues on the Green” and while I didn’t go, I noticed that afterwards, there would be more plastic bottles on the ground than usual. This never really lasted for long because the city is pretty good about taking care of the environment — at least as far as I know. This is something I hope to look more into as time goes on.
Here, you can see some wild Austinites enjoying greenspace, headphones in ear.
The case is not exactly the same here. While I did see a lot of clean up after the Accroche-Coeurs concert, I still see much more waste on the ground in Angers and in France in general. The whole “recycle” and “be green” movement isn’t nearly as popular as it is back in the States. I see a few “plastic only” waste bins here and there, but the trend is definitely still being introduced here. It’s no surprise that only 23% of household waste in France is recycled (2).
Post-Accroche Coeurs clean up
Something that I’ve noticed in both Angers and Austin is the amount of street performers. I think while money is a strong incentive to do so, I also think that there’s something nice about playing music outdoors. It shows that while yes, music causes us to do awful things to the environment, it also allows for us to be in harmony with it. This brings me to my next little bit that I’d like to incorporate into all of my blog posts!
There is nothing I love more than being outside and listening to a good song. So, I’d like to have a monthly song that’ll get you outside. Perhaps it will build into a playlist-type dealio, we’ll see. So yeah, here’s a song that I have been really enjoying while walking the city streets, as well as the beautiful trails here in Angers!
Click for the musical magic.
I tried to use my Fitbit as much as possible. There were definitely periods of time where I fell off of the wagon, but I don’t think much was lost. A lot of my time was spent either driving, sitting at a desk, or in bed. I went on a run here and there, but this was definitely one of my lazier summers. I have been trying to use it more as it has been forcing me to be more aware of my actions and how they affect my wellbeing. I find that my heart rate was at a much more calm rate when I was outside and listening to music. There would be the occasional spike if an exciting song came on, but overall the outdoors gave me much more of a calm than the indoors. That’s not to say that being indoors was always this terrifyingly stressful thing; I just mean that when I was outdoors I was usually alone with nature. For me, an introvert, that’s really comforting. There is a study that says that people are “happier outdoors in all green or natural habitat types than they are in urban environments” and I can’t agree more (3). While I did enjoy the hustle and bustle of inner-city Austin, there’s nothing more calming that sitting on the grass at Zilker, walking down a greenbelt, or simply relaxing in your front yard.
I experienced the same thing here in France. Angers, to me, is filled with plenty of green space and is a generally foreigner-friendly city. Being in Paris this past weekend was so daunting because the amount of greens pace was much more limited (at least from what I saw) and there was so much urban noise — car engines, motorcycle engines, honking, bike bells, etc. In all green space, you are left alone with your thoughts and the birds’ songs. It’s, to me, a much more relaxing affair.
While I’m not sure how cohesive this blog post has been, I am very sure that it is a step in the right direction. When thinking of music, we don’t normally think of things of the environment so I’m really excited to get to try and marry the two throughout the semester. As a Digital Media Management major, I hope to use a lot of pictures, video, and audio to get my message across. I’m not much of a scientist, but I’ve always been a bit artsy, so I think these things and my love of writing will help bolster my analysis of music and its relationship with our environment.
Things that I plan to improve on next time (is this allowed?):
1. Better usage of sources
2. Have a more streamlined train of thought
See you next month!
Sources:
(1) http://www.thejellyfishproject.org/home/2014/8/18/k9462no435t52wo24kn2kgqw17wvqn
(2) http://www.thelocal.fr/20150424/french-recycling-rate-slammed-as-disastrous
(3) http://personal.lse.ac.uk/mackerro/happy_natural_envs.pdf
(4) http://www.agreenerfestival.com/
(5) http://www.grida.no/files/workshops/music-environment/singing%20to%20a%20greener%20tune%20DRAFT%20REPORT.pdf