Sonic Activism: Tuning in, tuning up, and showing up in troubled times. Part 1

Part 1. Introduction

Our world is in trouble. Fact.

The planet, with its beautiful and delicate balance of ecosystems, faces multiple crises. Fact.

War, environmental destruction, systemic injustice, cultural fragmentation. All facts.

Clearly we are in a mess - on the precipice, as Noam Chomsky put it.

So maybe we could wonder:

In the face of all this, what’s the point of making music?

What use is there in writing another song?

What role might music play in helping to heal all the hurt and hate?

What can any of us do in the face of these massive planetary challenges?

Not much — and not nothing.

Joanna Macy talks about three broad responses to the crises we all face:

1. Carry on with business as usual.

2. Fall into an unravelling.

3. Choose the Great Turning.

The Great Turning is a shift from an unsustainable industrial society to a life-sustaining one. It involves new ways of seeing, new ways of being, and new ways of living together. It requires courage, imagination, and action.

It needs art.

It needs music.

Not just as a soundtrack to the movement, but as part of the movement itself.

So, we can do what we can. Whatever we can. However small and inconsequential it might seem.

Every drop of kindness and compassion, every gesture of care for the planet,for peace and harmony - these all add up. Drop by drop, we can nourish what needs nourishing.

This little guide is intended as a kind of field notebook - something to help with staying tuned in to what matters, keeping the faith when doubts creep in.

It’s a reminder that music isn’t just a luxury or a background track. It’s a channel for feeling, for remembering, for resisting, and for healing.

Let’s keep in mind that music has a long and rich history of doing all of this - it has been at the heart of movements, bridged cultures, and helped give a voice to the marginalised and oppressed

In the modern day, that potential is often buried under assumptions, algorithms, and commercial expectations.

The music industry tells musicians to entertain, to sell.

But there are other pathways — and this is one…

Sonic activism....

Using sound - of voice, instrument, body, the environment —to show up and be a witness. To tune in to, and amplify, what matters and what’s needed.

It might be a protest chant, a recording of birdsong shared as an appreciation of the Earth. It could be writing a song based on the upset of seeing or hearing the news of some global tragedy.

This guide gathers a handful of ideas, experiments, and reminders — some poetic, some practical. It’s for any of us who’s wondering how music might play a part in bringing about a great turning.

Especially when it feels like it’s all falling apart, grab your instrument, your laptop, or your phone, and be a sonic activist.