Darude

While music as a profession or hobby is not the worst imaginable environmental polluter, no-one in our time and age can afford to think they are above environmental responsibility. Musicians experience eco-anxiety especially for the amount of travel associated with their profession. What can an individual musician or music consumer do to help the environment, and is it possible to achieve change through music?

Finland has become, among other things, a land of pop. Technology is the major contributor to this development: music is more readily available than ever and easier to produce than ever. Finland’s hottest trending performer at the moment is Alma, who has 50 million Spotify streams to her credit.

Crossover has been like a red rag to a bull for many a serious-minded contemporary music buff. Nevertheless, the crossover products of the present decade speak of a respect for difference, and of the multidimensional aspect of both the present day and ourselves.

Finland can do nothing about its geographical location and its short summers and long winters. But can it still be a fun and exciting country, full of dancing and singing?

The pop-music Finland of 2004 is no longer just “the land of a thousand sad and sorry songs”, as the classic Eppu Normaali quipped some twenty years ago. The former backwoods have become a baking oven for every conceivable subgenre of popular music, turning out appetizing fare to suit all tastes, from fancies for the cake-shop window to savoury nibbles for the basement bash.