Music Matters - KYLE DEVINE: 'Recomposed: Music Climate Crisis Change'

This is a guest lecture in the Music Matters series.

Abstract

Everywhere you look, music is changing—overhauling itself in response to climate crisis. There are records made of plants and stereos that run on sunshine. There are sector-specific carbon calculators and literacy programs, organizations that size up (and draw down) the environmental impact of music on all levels. There are declarations of emergency, anthems for the anthropocene, playlists for the planet. Top to bottom, we are witnessing a climate-oriented recomposition of what music is and how it comes to be.

Music’s recomposition probably seems like a good thing. It is. And it isn’t. In this talk, I’ll highlight what is good about the good things, drawing on years of work with the people devoted to change. I’ll also explain what is not so good about the not-so-good things, showing how music gets stuck in ruts that turn even the best intentions into the problems they hope to solve. And I’ll suggests what could change in order to authorize the most daring hopes and audacious plans for rescuing the future of music—along with everything else.

About the speaker

Kyle Devine works in the Department of Musicology and the School of Environmental Humanities at the University of Oslo. His books include Decomposed: The Political Ecology of Music and Audible Infrastructures: Music, Sound, Media.