Musicking Green Alarm

Prophecies of environmental catastrophism in pop and rock music

Abstract

Tropes of disaster, apocalyptic reckoning, and fears of impending doom have determined the perception of environmental crisis since the rise of the ecological movements in the early 1970s. Environmental studies such as Limits to Growth and Global 2000 provide the theoretical basis for perceiving the future prophetically as endangered. To what extent are environment-related prophecy, fear, and escape scenarios a topic of pop music? This article discerns current pop-musical approaches to environmental prophecy by analyzing Western societies’ coping methods and latent conflicts: Whether it is the alarmism, the display of equanimity, or the communication of hope: Pop music is not only a sounding board of environmental prophecy within the entertainment industry. Rather, as an expression and agent of power, it is a decisive factor within ecological crisis dynamics.