A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall (Or How Climate Change Affects Music)

We've heard it many times, and this week we've heard it again: Some extreme weather events can only be blamed on humans. From wildfires to drought, hurricanes, and heat waves, climate change is behind an increase in the frequency of unusual, high-intensity meteorology. And we can expect more of it down the road, as the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere climbs and temperatures rise.

The weather is one of the strongest influences on culture. It influences its base (people being more sociable in areas with milder weather), but, apparently, it has a concrete effect on music too. Or so maintains meteorologist Paul Williams, from the University of Reading.

“In the same way that we have a climatological record of temperature from ice cores, it seems there’s also a kind of climate record in music as well.”

Dr Williams explored a music database, pulling 750 songs about the weather. He analyzed the lyrics and crossed this data with the real weather of the decades when they were written. He discovered a very interesting correlation: The songs from the hurricane-heavy 50s and 60s are much more likely to include words such as rain, wind, and hurricane than those from the 70s and the 80s.

This study and this article will not make headlines in prime time news shows, but I found the study idea delightful. Among all the disasters that climate change is bringing, and those we'll hopefully be able to avoid, this light thought about our music made me smile.

When I was a teenager, I got obsessed with The Doors' song "Riders On The Storm". I listened to it once and again for weeks, maybe even months. And, still now, when I hear the thunder roar, I start humming the opening bass phrases for the track. If we hear anything like that again, it would be climate change's first good news for me.