Taylor Swift broke voter registration records last fall with a simple social-media post: “I’ve heard you raise your voices, and I know how powerful they are,” she wrote. “Make sure you’re ready to use them in our elections this year!”
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But how much do we really understand about the potential of Swift’s fan base — not just during elections but all year round? What if Swift’s example could be replicated? What if all those excited fans attending concerts this summer raised their voices to take on the issue that affects every young person on the planet: climate change?
As a musician and climate advocate, I’ve been testing this theory during the national tour this summer of my indie pop band, AJR. We’re asking tens of thousands of fans every night — from the Forum in Los Angeles to Madison Square Garden in New York — to get active in the fight against climate change. Not surprisingly, our approach is working and offers important lessons for philanthropy in the creative strategies needed to address climate change.
Tackling the climate crisis doesn’t start and stop with investing in renewable energy and resilient infrastructure. It takes out-of-the-box ideas that can win over hearts and minds — a piece of the climate solution puzzle that remains woefully underfunded. Only a fraction of climate philanthropy supports communication and narrative work. Meanwhile, fossil-fuel companies spend some $750 million a year to control the narrative, even underwriting cultural events to greenwash their image.
Why Concerts?
To solve the climate crisis, more people need to speak up and demand change — and concerts attract a lot of people. Upward of 250 million people attend concerts every year in the United States alone, and musicians have enormous cultural influence.
Most Americans are deeply concerned about climate change, yet they stay quiet, falsely believing they’re in the minority. This public misperception matters, according to environmental psychologist Cynthia McPherson Frantz, “because what we think other people think strongly impacts our own behavior.” The current social norm of not talking about climate change has us “locked in a self-fulfilling spiral of silence,” she says.
Live entertainment has the potential to change those misperceptions by providing that rare place where strangers can come together and find their voice. Concert attendance is not a passive act. Fans sing and dance together, often tapping into an experience sociologists call “collective effervescence,” which leaves them feeling more connected and empowered.
Musicians can help channel that energy into collective climate action by mobilizing fans to sign petitions, call elected officials, participate in local protests, and share their climate stories. Here’s how one U2 fan put it in a survey conducted by my nonprofit, Planet Reimagined: “Sometimes people need to see who else believes what they believe in, and a music artist could be the person who gives someone the courage to speak up and take action.”
Mobilizing Fans
From my admittedly unusual viewpoint — I’m a successful touring artist with a Ph.D. in human rights and sustainable development — I’ve seen how this can work. I’ve spent the last few years collaborating with researchers, music industry partners, and Planet Reimagined donors to design an evidence-based approach to mobilizing fans. Our recent report, “Amplify,” shows how musicians can build a fan-based climate movement by, among other things, promoting local climate-advocacy opportunities and helping fans overcome anxieties about climate change by engaging them in tangible solutions.
AJR is deploying these methods at every arena we visit this summer. We’re hosting what we call an interactive “Action Village” on the concourse of each venue and personally inviting fans to take a stand and get plugged into local climate efforts.
This isn’t just about asking fans to pick up a flyer, sign up for a mailing list, or make a donation. Our research shows that none of those activities are effective at getting fans more deeply involved in climate efforts. Instead, the local organizers we work with connect concertgoers with immediate civic and political actions, such as asking them right there at the table to send letters to their state legislators, write postcards to the city council, or leave voice mails for their state senators about specific climate policies that affect their communities.
For example, in Norfolk, Va., we partnered with Chesapeake Climate Action Network to petition for increased public transportation. In Pittsburgh, we worked with the Center for Coalfield Justice to demand local elected officials stop taking campaign donations from fossil-fuel companies. One local organizer noted that their group typically talks to about 10 people at tables set up at local farmers markets and community events, but our show engaged nearly 150 fans in just the first hour.
Organizing this kind of campaign is no small task. The Planet Reimagined team and I spent a year developing the “Amplify” report and action plan with several key contributors. In-kind support from Ticketmaster helped us distribute the survey to hundreds of thousands of ticket buyers; iHeart Radio offered free promotional services; and Live Nation provided programmatic expertise and funding. We also received early philanthropic support from the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation and expert advice from climate organizations such as Reverb and Climate Outreach. Two Planet Reimagined staff coordinated all this with local groups for months in advance.
Creating Infrastructure
Very few artists have the expertise or resources to re-create an effort like this. That’s where philanthropy comes in. With philanthropic support, we can build out an infrastructure to connect artists, activists, and fans in each city.
Grant makers can use their convening power to help create a network of local climate groups and musicians who can work together to activate fans. They can identify, recruit, and fund local climate organizers who know how to inspire concertgoers to take action and become part of a sustainable local movement. Funders could also provide the money needed for staffing, materials, and time to participate in concert-based campaigns.
Philanthropic investment would allow local organizers to focus on engaging fans in direct actions rather than asking them to just open their wallets, which studies show can be a major turnoff. And to ensure that this network of donors, organizers, and artists continues to grow, grant makers could fund outreach campaigns to educate and recruit other musicians to join the effort.
Finally, more support is needed for research that continues to demonstrate the effectiveness of concert-based climate advocacy in different contexts and with different fan bases. Such research is critical to persuading more artists to join us. For example, I’ve used the results of the Planet Reimagined “Amplify” survey of thousands of live-music fans to make the case to other musicians. The survey found that nearly three out of four fans are concerned about climate change and ready to act. And 70 percent said they wouldn’t object to artists speaking out about the issue.
This is a powerful data point for musicians who might be worried about turning off fans if they take a stand on climate change. In fact, many of those fans surveyed said they were more likely to act if one of their favorite artists asked them, including three in five who said they would sign a petition about climate change and two in five who said they would volunteer with a climate-focused organization.
Some major acts are already taking steps to align their music with their personal environmentalism. To drive down emissions, Coldplay powers its shows with a range of renewable energy sources, including solar panels and kinetic dance floors, which convert the steps taken by dancing fans into energy. Billie Eilish ensures that every venue provides plant-based food options and organizes her own climate conference.
But to truly have an impact on the climate narrative, more artists without such deep pockets and personal expertise will need easier ways to join in.
Imagine if every major concert ended not just with an encore but with a call to action — an invitation from a beloved artist to join the ranks of those fighting for a livable future. Philanthropists could be a critical force in making that happen if they recognize artists as essential partners in the fight for climate solutions.