What does being A (Caribbean) DJ have to do with sustainability?

What does being A (Caribbean) DJ have to do with sustainability?

Everything.

Every time I see DJs transform the atmosphere of an event, the lighbulb of this idea is lit. In these times, most good Djs can successfully move a crowd filled with blue-lit faces preoccupied with their phones. That is a miraculous work of art and precise science in my opinion. People move on the Djs cue. People move based on the DJ’s choices. People respond to the energy of the DJ.

The popularity and success of music largely depends on the delivery of the DJ through online streaming or events. DJs are instrumental in giving more of us access to music – beyond those that can actually attend live performances. This wide access is evident based on how artists generate income from online song sales, song streaming platforms and more recently live-streaming of their performances.

The advent of music stream platforms is a response to an artists’ need to financially sustain their music production. Accessing a worldwide market digitally rather than depending just on travelling for live performances speeds up the return on investment for good artists who find their audience or “tribe”. Music listeners benefit from this based on how DJs channel music through music streaming platforms whether it is an online stream of a local radio station or a podcast.

Even though the Youtube platform is huge for emerging artists, all artists must go through the phase of being validated on music channels other than those they control themselves. Millions of views on a Youtube channel doesn’t necessarily mean that all of those viewers like your music or will support it financially. This is where the DJ plays a role in channeling music and guiding people towards certain choices based on what music they intuit people will love. DJs democratize music and every time we move our bodies or buy – we vote.

The irony in this is that DJs are leaders who depend 100% on the response of the people they “lead”.

Wait, shouldn’t all political leaders or civil servants depend on crowd response? It is more ironic that the power of listening to your audience whether it is crowd or a critical mass is seemingly being forgotten by political leaders.

Crowd response is the key for driving political or issued based movements towards any kind of change. for the better. What drives the engine of change is leaders who are tuned in to what is happening with the people they serve, what has happened in the past and how people respond to proposed leadership solutions.

Now back to sustainability and entertainment. Let’s think about the environmental impact of entertainment events. If you are in the Caribbean, one event can easily generate 2 tons of garbage especially if it is an all-inclusive event (food and beverage) which also includes plastic/Styrofoam disposable food ware/cups. Considering that most entertainment events aren’t charged for clean-up based on the volume of what they produce but rather on the size of the venue, we can see why waste generation is a major environmental impact of entertainment events.

Then there is the energy used at events. Nightclubs need air conditioning - to dissipate the heat of our sweaty dancing bodies. In the Caribbean where we have many outdoor events we still find ways to increase our fossil fuel impact. As one popular bashment soca artist “Stiffy” says – we are “Plug in to all”. Literally our energy use includes generators, lighting, audio, DJ equipment and then there is the fuel used in preparing and trucking equipment to events.

In the Caribbean, there is the environmental impact of creating the element of surprise for patrons by how we continuously change venues for events rather than using established entertainment venues. We convert beach areas, pastures, plantation houses, industrial sites and more unthinkably creative places into entertainment venues. In the Caribbean event organizer’s evaluation, this surprise venue element must be less expensive to do than to rent out clubs seeing that so many of them make this choice. Then again we may not be fully accounting for all of our costs and the risk associated in a changing climate (e.g. heavier rainfall, changes to water table levels and soil instability).

Then there are the added elements which make every party more fun – foam, confetti, fog machines, dry ice, balloons, plastic floaty blow away things, in the Caribbean j’ouvert parties – paint, mud, oil, powder and cocoa. Where do all of these added elements go when the party is over?

So my point is that I don’t need to make a stretch and speak metaphorically about how the ability of Djs to move crowds can be likened to the type of leadership we need to progess a movement of change for our ecosystems, health or to deal with the big bad scary climate change monster. I also don’t even need to describe the stretch of a statement of how DJs’ subtle and sub conscientious leadership is really the best form of influencing our psyche rather than the “here’s what to do, now you need to do it” model of leadership.

Then, there is the versatility of what DJs say (mic/radio announcing/social media presence) and play no matter where they are. They can make the content of any song relate to any issue they want regardless of the lyrics and that is the power of staying relevant and being culturally relevant.

Leadership by example and building culturally relevant movements based on what people want to hear is our present and our future if we really want to sustain our ecosystems.

Environmental sustainability can be found at every entertainment event if we look closely. At the policy level there are international standards (ISO20121) for entertainment events. In practice, entertainment events as small as corporate staff parties and as large as Coachella integrate environmental sustainability into event management. Event organizers are motivated to reduce operational costs, attract eco-conscious patrons, association of their brand with emerging technology or just because organizers are conscious enough to lead by sustainable example.

A few examples of this can be found as far and wide as Jamaica and Germany -

Rebel Salute 2017

This reggae event is hosted yearly in Jamaica by reggae artist Tony Rebel to be an “authentic roots reggae, wholesome culture and healthy living”. Every year he brings together musicians with both hits from the past and who are still relevant for a “clean” event focused on conscious artistry. This artistry isn’t only found in the performing arts but in culinary arts and visual arts. With workshops and a vendor’s fair – patrons are given a change to experience reggae culture and indigenous art. Aside from their strict no-meat, no-alcohol policy, in 2017 they also set up recycling throughout the event with Recycling Partners for Jamaica.

TeleFonica Corporate Party

This corporate party hosted for 4,000 employees of Germany’s largest mobile service provider and featured kinetic energy as the main attraction. The largest energy dance floor ever installed (100 modules). Over a three hour period, 40 employee teams led by German dancer Christian Polanc battled to generate energy on the floor.

So back to DJs and sustainability. What if I told you that you could study anything in the world and still create a sustainable career?

What if I told you that DJs who majored in journalism, computer science and information management now have careers in music production, mass media communication and they are all giving more youth access to technology careers in environmental sustainability?

It is true and here’s how – Part. 2 - Caribbean Deejaying - Versatility, Skill-transferal and Sustainability 101.

- Ariana Marshall Ph.D, - A scientist who parties but calls it "research and development".