Earth Day and Spotify don’t appear to share anything in common at first glance, but the way I use it to celebrate our planet is to create reminders of our planet’s wonders, in addition to learning more about global warming.
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I Started With the Sounds of Nature
Brady Meyers / How-To Geek
For anyone making playlists on Spotify inspired by Earth Day, adding an ocean’s worth of the sounds of nature should be a given. You can’t have a playlist without them. Nothing is more of a reminder, other than videos, that we live on an amazing planet than hearing the calls of animals, the weather, and the general backdrop of nature.
It’s the section of my playlist that gets the most attention, because I don’t just use it to celebrate Earth Day—I use the sounds of nature to relax, too. This is especially true when I’m having trouble sleeping or during the winter when I can’t have the windows open to hear the nighttime ambiance. It’s like my own personal white noise machine.
I also like mixing in nature tracks that incorporate just a little music, preferably soft and whimsical, usually when I’m awake, and then stick to isolated nature sounds when I’m sleeping.
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I Created a Playlist Featuring Songs About the Environment
When I want to go beyond the sounds of nature into inspirational territory, Spotify has a deluge of music with positive environmental messages. Yours might be different, but there are a couple of songs I think are non-negotiable and should be on every Earth Day playlist:
- Billie Eilish: All the Good Girls Go to Hell
- Michael Jackson: Earth Song
- The Beach Boys: Don’t Go Near the Water
- Queen: Is This the World We Created…?
- Childish Gambino: Feels Like Summer
I’m not all that strict on where that line is. Songs like John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ may not be about the environment specifically, but they inhabit the same sphere. I think it’s important to temper my Earth Day playlist with an emphasis on togetherness on a social level, too. Lastly, I don’t stick to any type of genre—if it sounds good and the messaging is right, it goes on my list.
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I Add Podcasts to Mix it Up
Brady Meyers / How-To Geek
I didn’t just want my Spotify playlist to be a bunch of songs about protecting the Earth, its environment, and noise. Podcasts are an essential backbone to my playlist in keeping it current and relevant beyond Earth Day. If I don’t stay informed and up-to-date, I’m no better than a slacktivist. The handful of podcasts I like to tune into are:
- Outrage + Optimism: Features numerous guest activists and environmentalists, like Greta Thunberg and Sir David Attenborough, to discuss the challenges of climate change and what we can do, as a whole, to fix it.
- Climate Rising: Focuses on the impact that businesses have on the Earth and what can be done to prevent businesses from making climate change worse.
- NASA’s Curious Universe: An official podcast of NASA’s, which focuses on space exploration, from engineering feats to phenomena.
The important thing is to bring a mix of podcasts to your own Spotify playlist (or merge playlists together). For example, space is part of our environment too, and it does have an effect on the planet. Don’t focus on podcasts that explain the consequences, but provide meaningful solutions and ways you can help.
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Finally, Breaking Up My Playlists into Themes
I admit, I can get a bit “doomer” about global warming. It’s a massive undertaking that requires millions of people to band together to attack head-on and make a change. It’s not impossible by any stretch of the imagination, mind you. So, what happens is, I can get stuck in these loops of hearing nothing but the worst of the effects.
I don’t want to shy away from it, but I also want to compartmentalize it into playlist themes. Essentially, I create playlists that focus on different aspects of Earth Day—the good and the bad. For example, one playlist could be a combination of informative podcasts, hopeful solutions, and what we should be worried about. I then interspersed each playlist with the sounds of nature. It also doesn’t hurt to shuffle my playlists on Spotify occasionally, too.
While Spotify is usually linked to music, it can take something like Earth Day and make it a daily part of your life, from the soothing sounds of nature to informative podcasts. I like to use my Earth Day playlists as a constant reminder that I’m not the only person on this planet, nor the only life form that matters.
