Clean Music, Activism, and Jack Johnson–All at Once
Well, Billboard beat me too it. It’s probably better that way–because they focused on a few bands I didn’t even know existed. I was going to do a piece on Jack Johnson and his ability to create music from a studio powered by the solar panels that cover the roof, and create change from a sustainable lifestyle powered by his words and actions. Then I decided I’d branch out to include more bands, since Jack isn’t the only musician with sustainable style. Then I found this Billboard article.
I wasn’t too bummed, because as I alluded to earlier, it did open my eyes to Mana and their Selva Negra Foundation, and Missy Higgins and her carbon neutral tour. The article also highlighted the other things their top ten green bands, or “Green Ten”, are doing to share their music and their ideals. Like, The Roots giving away autographed compost bins, or Radiohead’s desire to travel only when needed, and to partner with Best Foot Forward when they do, or Serj Tankian’s Sky Is Over website, or a whole fleet of biodiesel buses, etc… (I’ll let you read the article for more).
I was also happy that Billboard did leave out one of Jack’s most important “green” features, so that I could be left with a little writing of my own…
As great as it is that there are recycled paper CD covers and biodiesel buses, we cannot create true worldwide change without organized organizing. Without linking a bunch of little individual movements together we remain isolated and much less able to make a meaningful difference. As a result, Jack and Kim Johnson (with operational support from Music Matters, and technical support from Oniracom) created the All at Once Community. Their tagline reads: “An individual action, multiplied by millions, creates global change.”
Jacob Tell, Vice President and Creative Lead of Oniracom and Oniric Records shared some background with me this afternoon:
Jack’s song “All At Once” is the ethos surrounding the concept of this online social networking site. Music Matters has been good to work with - they are behind the logistics and operations, whereas Jack and Kim are the architects of the general idea. It’s like an environmental myspace. The goal is to provoke environmental education and communication. We’ve been involved on most decisions from a technical perspective, allowing our online marketing experience to mature within the realm of All At Once. It’s been great to be a part of. We’re excited to watch the community continue to grow.
They are linking a growing list of environmental non-profits together with a large number of individuals to create what will hopefully become one large voice for change. View the video explaining their vision here. And remember, “An individual action, multiplied by millions, creates global change”, so start changing…
…the world!
For more on what Jack Johnson is doing to green up the world check out his “greening” page.
photo credit: www.jackjohnsonmusic.com
Over at my website I also did a post regarding the billboard article and the amazing efforts Jack is making to help get the music world involved in solving this issue. You can see it here if you like: http://www.ecologicliving.ca/2008/03/jack-johnsons-all-at-once/
but what kinda bothered me about the billboard article was how they left out Guster and their role in the creation of Reverb. For anyone that doesn’t know, Reverb is all about “greening” a music tour and does just that for many artists, including Jack Johnson. I felt that while including the top green artists, billboard should have have talked about Reverb a little bit and how all these different artists are coming together. Heres a link if anyone wishes to learn more about Reverb and all the bands involved.
http://www.reverbrock.org/site/
Cheers. Paul.
I think its great what Jack is doing for the community… I love his music and I also love his love for the world he live in. There will be an article up soon about this at http://jackfan.com/news/.