“There’s an interesting juxtaposition between the vibrant, high-quality video and the outlandish storytelling. Line-by-line, the song moves from organism to organism without any of them really saying anything about why the Earth or our place in it might actually matter. Similar to other Earth Day disappointments, it’s diminutive to the concerns and responses to climate and environmental issues while propping up charismatic animals, just this time with an extra heap of irreverence. Of all of the actual reasons to say “We love the Earth,” I don’t think a “I’m an elephant, I got junk in my trunk” is what’s going to motivate real change.
“A few almost elicited a chuckle from me, but I was more stunned by the weirdness than endeared by the humor. I assume some watchers find the nonsense and crudeness of the comments by the different animals funny, but I’m unimpressed.
“What did warm up a bit to the song was taking a look around the informational website published in association with it, WeLoveTheEarth.org. Lil Dicky explains climate change, plastic waste and other environmental concerns using simple language and an engaging tone. It’s imprecise and some of the discussion is framed in ways that I’d like to critique, but I recognize that it’s strategically flippant and topical. Its intended audience is not someone whose major, job and extracurriculars revolve around climate change, and that’s unequivocally a good thing.
“But, while “Earth” has over 68 million views on YouTube, the videos where Lil Dicky gives a crash course on climate change have done pitifully badly. The first video has almost 30,000 views, which doesn’t suck, but all of the others hover around 5,000 views. While “Earth” was so wide-reaching, the momentum didn’t flop over to a website that also took quite a bit of time and effort,” (Sims, 2019).
Lil Dicky’s song “Earth” is an unusual mix of pop culture and social action. With track features from numerous big artists—Ariana Grande, Kanye Wester, Justin Beiber, Katy Perry, and so on—as well as a catchy background track, “Earth” has 437 million views on YouTube and 213,570,362 streams on Spotify. While the execution of the song and subsequent calls to action by Lil Dicky may not have been executed particularly well, the fact that it managed to become so popular says something on its own.
Lil Dicky’s fan base, often generalized as college frat boys, is notorious for destructive and careless behavior. Somehow, Lil Dicky managed to break into that demographic and encourage people to “save the Earth” which is an unusual voice in that social sphere. Did his efforts bring about any notable change? Are frat boys more socially conscious now? I don’t know.
What I do know is that “Earth” fills a hyper-specific niche that has been chronically under-recognized in sustainability movements. Perhaps there’s something for me to learn from him.
References
Lil Dicky. (2019, April 19). Lil Dicky – Earth (Official Music Video) [Video].
YouTube.com. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvuN_WvF1to
Sims, K. (2019, April 30). SIMS | Lil Dicky’s ‘Earth’ Misses the Point. The
Cornell Daily Sun. Retrieved September 10, 2024, from
https://cornellsun.com/2019/04/30/lil-dickys-earth-misses-the-point/
