The cessation of the group Shaka Ponk for ecological reasons illustrates the impasses in which current Music is entangled on an environmental level. Despite the recent proliferation of “green” initiatives, the sector remains for the moment dominated by a model that causes significant socio-environmental damage. But alternative experiments are emerging…
The year 2024 marks the voluntary end of the French alternative rock and electronic group Shaka Ponk, after more than 12 years of existence and great success. The group justifies this stop by its commitment to preserving the environment, as the group's singer said in an interview for France Inter:
“At the beginning, we were a small rock group between friends, which grew, and success involves ecological responsibility. We realized that we had become part of the problem […]. We chose to stop out of existential consistency. We cannot deliver beautiful messages and cultivate a professional activity that is so polluting.”
If they have become spokespersons for the ecological cause through their artistic remarks and their speeches, their artistic activities are no less energy-consuming and destructive of the environment (tours of major festivals, gigantism of scenographies, etc.) , reflecting a strong gap between their personal ecological values and their professional practices.
A double responsibility
A striking example for the general public, the shutdown of the group Shaka Ponk highlights a cultural sector, and particularly a musical sector, questioning the role it plays in the contemporary environmental crisis. Because the music industry is energy-intensive in resources and waste, which appears contradictory with contemporary ecological issues. The current model is not sustainable, with a logic of competition – between artists to develop, between places and events to attract audiences, between territories to strengthen their attractiveness – and “always more” (concerts, gauges, social networks, equipment, travel, etc.).
This model is thus fully part of the contemporary capitalist and consumerist system and is responsible for numerous socio-environmental degradations: pollution generated by the mobility of audiences and artistic teams, impacts of digital technologies used in the music industry, social inequalities between “star” artists and “ordinary” artists… Professionals in the sector have thus identified different levers of action to reduce the ecological impact of current music and culture, including the relocation of activities within local areas , the slowdown in the pace of production and distribution, or even the reduction in the scale of projects and events.
But current culture and music could also play a positive role in the fight against the ecological crisis. Through stories, visions of the world and the emotions they provide, they can raise public awareness and shape new, more virtuous collective imaginations in terms of ecology.
Adapt the system without changing it
In recent years, ecological concerns have been increasingly present in the current music sector: positions taken by renowned artists (Billie Eilish, Pomme, etc.), creation of professional collectives (such as Music Declares Emergency), publication of studies, implementation of training for professionals in the sector (such as the MOOC Landscape from Périscope), commitment of festivals to “eco-responsible” practices (among the pioneers, the Festival Collective), emergence of “eco-advisors” (The Green Room, for example), development of socio-environmental impact calculators for musical events and venues (such as Fairly)…
Some of the initiatives appear limited by a managerial and neoliberal approach which attempts to adapt the existing capitalist system, and therefore to make it continue, by making current practices and consumption more sober and efficient. This involves, for example, more economical lighting systems, decorations based on recycled materials or digital tools.
Such an approach is part of an ambiguous logic of “ecological transition”, which expresses a desire for evolution but without changing the system, although it is unsustainable. In doing so, these initiatives sometimes focus exclusively on reducing the “carbon footprint” of cultural activities, following a technical approach which neglects many of the essential levers of the ecological crisis such as impacts on biodiversity, issues in terms of social inequalities, the emotional springs of the relationship with the living, or environmental degradation linked to digital technology.
This approach also neglects the scale of the transformations to be undertaken in the fight against socio-ecological degradation, closer to a rupture and radical mutation (like degrowth) than to a transition and adaptation of the current system.
Certain cultural and musical initiatives are even characterized by such contradictions between the displayed ecological commitment and the reality of the practices that they fall into greenwashing. For example, the Coldplay group promotes, via a dedicated site and advertising spots with the transport company DHL, “sustainable” and “low carbon” tours, based on various adaptations: solar panels for power supply, use of low energy consumption LED screens…
A “green” display which is in discordance with the sequence of mega-concerts on an international scale which require the massive use of planes for the artistic team and equipment while including a very heavy scenography in terms of scenery, sound and light to ensure a spectacular and energy-intensive show.
In addition, high gauges attract large and sometimes distant audiences whose travel also represents a notable ecological impact. These initiatives produce deleterious effects by disseminating false promises which confuse the public debate on ecological issues and contribute to maintaining an unsustainable development model for the music industry.
Artists facing a double bind
Thus, current music is still based today on a model of “success” for artists based on a star system generating a counter-model of sobriety.
Indeed, the more a musical artist performs in concert internationally, is followed on social networks, has listenings on musical platforms, the more he is recognized and socially valued by the media, the cultural world, the public , even though it has a much greater negative environmental impact than local artists whose notoriety and income are lower.
For many emerging artists, who are in an imposed sobriety, emerging from the financial precariousness linked to their stage of development therefore requires being part of an unsustainable career trajectory and partly dependent on the opportunities offered by producers, tourers, labels, venues, festivals and other players in the musical ecosystem.
This places artists concerned about the environmental issue facing a paradoxical injunction: how to engage in professional practices that are virtuous from an ecological point of view within a music industry focused on contradictory objectives of notoriety and growth? The gap between their professional lives and their personal aspirations for commitment to the ecological emergency reinforces a form of eco-anxiety among certain artists. As such, the Shaka Ponk ruling shows that the dominant model is a dead end when ecological issues are taken seriously.
How to change paradigm?
This observation encourages us to consider alternative ways of developing for all those involved in current music (including the public). The challenge is to radically and systemically rethink the dominant paradigm of the star system, competition and growth, in favor of ecologically sustainable alternatives based on values and practices of cooperation around artistic creation, cultural production and dissemination.
One of the avenues is the change of scale and the promotion of the territorial inscription of artists and the music industry. Because if the figure of the “ordinary artist” or the “local artist” involved in the cultural life of the territory is largely depreciated in the current context, it can be of interest from an ecological and social point of view: limitation mobility of audiences and artistic teams, stimulation of local cultural vitality, increased participation of residents, revitalization of cooperative networks of local actors, etc.
It is precisely the objective of the ECOMUSIQ research project to fuel reflection around this paradigm shift. This project proposes, through the notions of embeddedness and territorial footprint, to capture the traces and influences of cultural activities on their territory. The aim is to highlight the social and cultural role that artists and other current music professionals can play within their local environment, while respecting the issues of cultural diversity, social justice and ecological sustainability.
Two examples analyzed as part of the project, among others, show that alternative experiments are possible, not without certain paradoxes and difficulties. The Aïla group thus offers concerts without electricity, in a natural environment, on a regional scale, with voluntarily reduced gauges. It is committed to a transversal ecological approach (scenography, artistic statement, local partnerships, etc.) aimed at offering audiences a chance to reconnect with the natural environment.
Basile Michel, 2024, Provided by the author
In terms of events, a festival like La P'Art Belle seeks to combine ecology and music by setting a limited gauge stable over the years and by adopting a traveling form to address local audiences and limit travel. The festival also integrates various “eco-responsible” practices (local and vegetarian food, air mobility prohibited for artistic teams, etc.) and offers audiences aligned, even committed programming in environmental and social matters.
These examples echo other initiatives such as the call “For an ecology of living music”, which notably advocates the promotion of the work of artists in the local territory and the abandonment of territorial exclusivity clauses imposed on artists. by places or events to prohibit them from performing in the region several months before and after their concert (which prevents the implementation of coherent tours). The shutdown of Shaka Ponk is also part of this line, with the artists' claim of a desire to reduce their artistic project and to think about it in new ways that are more respectful of the environment.
If these alternative initiatives open up the field of possibilities, they still remain too ad hoc to radically transform the star system of current music and trigger a change of paradigm and system of values, from competition to cooperation, from “always more” to decline, from gigantism to sobriety. However, it is through this type of alternative experimentation that an ecological change in our societies could occur, hence the importance of shedding light on them and extinguishing it on deadly models.
