1 in 3 Hit Songs Mentions Substance Abuse, Smoking

www.livescience.com...




I found this article to be very interesting and thought I would share. While I am certainly not pleased with the glorication of substance abuse, I do feel it is ultimately the responsibility of the parents to filter what type of music their children listen to. I do find it disturbing when I see the numbers on these statistics. I think we need to find other things to sing about.

What happened to the good ol' theme of love?

Love, love me do... She loves you.. etc.

Make love, not war! Oh,I forgot (I'm an old man)

Now it's the other way around.

I think the reason can be found in the type of life led by those who write those songs. They write of things they can relate to and if that is going out drinking and shaking you booty going boing boing on my john then that is what they'll write about

And let's face it, with the majority of leading artists being somewhere between 17 and 28, which are the party years (atleast for me ) then we can't avoid getting a whole lot of that kind of music.

Ofcourse if we then take the record from which the "hit" song originated from I don't think every single number would be about partying.

Young people like music they can have fun too while out in town and who has fun and dances to songs about love and cuddly wuddly teddybears?
Except if you haven't slept for 48 hours xD

reply to post by kleverone

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I don't believe the use of these refrences is increasing. I do believe they are much more blatent about what they are talking about these days. Whereas a lot of older songs have drug refrences, but few would be able to figure them out, because they were somewhat coded.

Just like Chris Rock said, "People love to get high." And they enjoy hearing about getting high, people singing about getting high, other people talk about getting high, and so on.

Like the songs "Roll Out the Barrel," and "Little Brown Jug" were never popular. Flip through the American Songbook and the percentage of songs that mention drinking or smoking is probably up near 50 percent.

Besides, a lot of the songs you think are fairly innocent are poetic allusions to nasty things. Like the Beatles' "Please Please Me." Innocent love song, or really quite nasty?

generally, i think this is too much interpretations on simple words. like the soneg "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, there's no part in the song that said "i would like to smoke some marijuana dipped in meth and have extasy for chasers" but when you read (or sing) between the lines, some artistic/creative interpretations get lost (or get going). "love" can become love for ganja. "SHE" might mean any drug that has a female nickname (maryjane, crystal). but then again, who makes this hit music? the music industry is full of substance abusers and pushers. the culture is sex, drugs and rock and roll. the youth, the mainstream. music reflects the truth.

Music is an art form and to each is own. People can sing about whatever they want and it can be on their album, but public radio especially the popular stations should be more responsible and not help promote those particular songs.

Songs like Amy Winehouse "Rehab" (just a popular example) should not be in heavy rotation on any MSM station nor should it be on at times when it's possible that younger listeners are around, (like when you're driving your kid to or from school) nor should it be pushed in our face. Songs like that should stay being an "underground" hit.

and it's not just the drugs, it's the sex too. Certain songs make me blush in front of my kids and I have to change the station and I'm not even close to being a prude, nor do I easily take offense to sex talk or sexual inuendos on tv shows, but then you have a song like "The Whisper Song" by YingYang Twins

Save it for the bedroom and behind closed doors. Everything doesn't have to go mainstream.

another aspect to this, is that the entire globe has increased its' needs for vices and drugs, music and sex all go hand in hand. Globally the entire world is seeking escape from reality and this is what we've become.

I think the world...

YouTube Link

I remember... a two-fer in this context.

YouTube Link

There's some Tracy Morrow vids... from the 90's that exemplfy this sort of cultural education/indoctrination stuff. Some choose the term art. I sort of see it as "business" as usual. Some see it as an opportunity to force their pespective on others - from both sides. It's real, no doubt.

I'd say "cheers" but that might be misconstrued, all hail Xenu,

Vic

[edit on 5-2-2008 by V Kaminski]

Its all supply and demand, if idiots didn't want to hear other idiots sing about being idiots, then the idiots wouldn't get air time...

I'm all for the use of/songs about mind altering substances... It all depends on the way in which they are used/ the message that is conveyed... If people were properly educated about drugs, they would be seen and used in a different light... Hallucinogenics have been used throughout most if not all of humans existence, it in fact probably contributed a great deal towards our social evolution.

Many mind altering substances are known to have beneficial and powerful effects... The problem is kids these days just want to have the feeling of being 'f-ed up'...

The other problem is that people don't realize their power, especially famous people... Under our current model of the capitalistic system, a major driving force is just to get rich, so you get pop-stars who will basically sell their souls and destroy a generation so they can live in a mansion and drive a nice car...

But again its all supply and demand, if people didn't buy their albums, this problem wouldn't exist...



I dunno how, but I felt as if I slipped somewhat from the original topic... *shrugs*

It's simple. Whatever it takes to get the producers rich. End of story.....