Permaculture's Top 5 Environmental Songs & Music Videos

1. 'Big Yellow Taxi' - Joni Mitchell:

Mitchell wrote this during a visit to Hawaii. She was blown away by nature and the natural beauty of the island, but her heart was quickly broken when the utopia was shattered by an unsightly concrete parking lot. 

2. Society - Eddie Vedder

Channeling society's need to have it all to be happy, Pearl Jam frontman Vedder sings about how we have created a world where we are driven to want more and to not realise the good that we already have.

3. 'Flying' - Sieze the Day:

Sieze the Day write songs to celebrate, inspire and support the liberation of life. 'Flying' is just one of their songs that is helping to spark a shift in perspective. 

4. 'The Wolves- Ben Howard

'The Wolves' was recently used in an SAS (Surfers Against Sewage) documentary campaign to keep the UK coastline free of sewage. A short exert of the film can be seen here with a live version of 'The Wolves' by Ben Howard 

5.Maybe -Autons 

We may have all heard of the big names such as Joni Mitchell and Jack Johnson who have all played a big part in environmental music history, but we recently found out that Tony from the Permaculture office used to play in a band named Autons. This empowering and provocative song from 2007 is full of inspiring lyrics and images, bringing together positive images of what we can each do to make a difference and placing them alongside what is increasingly happening if we don't (climate change and over consumerism for example).

We could go on forever here! 

But, we know that there are hundereds of artist out there writting music to help change the world, and theses are just a few of the songs we could think of that inspire us to make a difference. We would love to hear what songs  inspire you so please feel free to share clips in the 'Comments' space below  or send suggestions via email to us at: info@permaculture.co.uk

Other songs that some of us in the Permaculture office love include:

There are lots of songs out there! Some with just snippets of lyrics that make your stop and think -such as The Doors 'When The Music's Over',  "What have they done to the earth? What have they done to our fair sister? Ravaged and plundered and ripped her and bit her. Stuck her with knives in the side of the dawn and tied her with fences and dragged her down".

'Earth Song' by Michael Jackson was one of the first songs to cover environmental and animal welfare and spark the start of empowereing social and economic change through music! And its a pretty epic one too..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAi3VTSdTxU

'Gone Going' - Jack Johnson. Jack Johnson is a constant promoter of all things Green and has written an array of environmental songs that encourage people to make the small differences in their everyday lives - Check out his song 'Reduce, Reuse, Recycle' - it's a great one for kids!

Some other great suggestions can be found on various sites. Check out these to see what other people chose:

Top Ten Earth Day Songs: http://music.yahoo.com/blogs/yradish/top-10-earth-day-songs.html

The Environmental Investigations Agency: http://www.eia-international.org/sounds-green-to-me-10-top-environmental-songs

For an Australian perspective view this list: http://www.abc.net.au/environment/articles/2011/02/02/3127144.htm

We would love to hear from people on all continents about the music they are making ... lets help it be heard.