Environmental Rock
tagStarted 1970Peak 1988-1995Last big hit still active
Located in 1 route
Rock that takes ecology as its cause — pollution, asbestos and nuclear power, deforestation, climate and indigenous land. Sound ranges from Neil Young's ragged Crazy Horse guitar to Midnight Oil's arena drive, with wide, earth-evoking dynamics and pleading or warning vocals. Folk-tinged or hard-charging, it frames nature as victim and humanity as defendant, building choruses meant to alarm.
History
Emerged around the first Earth Day in 1970 as Joni Mitchell mourned paved paradise and Marvin Gaye decried "Mercy Mercy Me." It hardened through the late-1970s anti-nuclear MUSE concerts and Midnight Oil's 1980s land-rights and anti-mining activism; Neil Young's Greendale and Jack Johnson's family eco-anthems carried it into the climate era.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Yellow_Taxi
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Sky_Mine
- https://thrasherswheat.org/tnfy/e2f-neil-young-greendale.htm
- https://americansongwriter.com/a-cautionary-tale-and-the-first-call-to-action-of-its-kind-the-meaning-behind-jackson-brownes-before-the-deluge/