Check out these videos. A couple of my favorites!
A couple days ago I was listening to my Itunes library and began to notice that many of the songs that we're playing had the same theme. They were all about drugs! Now granted I didn't turn them off, and I won't be skipping them on my ipod because they're extremely catchy. But I am trying to figure out now why it is okay for music to have such subject matter in it. Although the videos I have posted above our from the rap genre, there are more songs I discovered about drugs such as "Cocaine" by Eric Clapton, and "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" by The Beatles.
When did it become so socially acceptable to discuss drugs to the extent that it is present in music nowadays? It was always known that people smoked marijuana, since the 60s when the hippie's wanted peace and at Woodstock when all types of drugs were in circulation. But we must remember that such substances are banned!!! In the above video very popular rapper Lil' Wayne speaks about various drug after effects in "I Feel Like Dying". It is common knowledge that the Styrofoam cup he is often photographed with contains a mixture known as "Lean" a mixture of cough syrup (mainly codine as referenced in the song "jumping off of a mountain into a sea of codine") and alcohol. He also mentions marijuana numerous times similar to the other artist's video I posted, Wiz Khalifa, whose highly anticipated mixtape Kush and Orange Juice contains countless tracks dedicated to marijuana. The song "In the Cut" speaks about smoking weed as soon as he awakens in the morning.
The issue at hand here is that we can not stop today's youth from listening to this type of music. It is what's popular and catchy (if I do say so myself) yet does not portray a positive message. In the same manner that the Kiely Williams "Sex is Spectacular" video depicts an inaccurate representation of the wonderful sex you can have while under the influence, songs such as these may be encouraging today's youth to use drugs in order to either escape problems, be creative thinkers or just for recreational purposes.
Also a large majority of songs about drugs are of the rap genre, which cater specifically towards the black community. This can cause an increase of drug use within a community that is already falling apart from violence, and financial troubles. Many people see music as their escape. If this is what they're listening to what will they use to escape next?
Here's a video for the road!
Really nice job. Good point. What can we do? Interesting how the images of drugs in music have changed over the last 40 years (in terms of what they mean, how they're used, the kind of music that goes with them). What do you think this connotes about drug use today or those who sing about it. Not sure but something to think about.
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