Drug use in music

References to recreational drug use in various forms have been common as the modern record industry developed, particularly in terms of popular music genres such as pop rock singles, dance releases, and the like.

These issues cut across lines of nationality, age, race, gender, and musical genre, with contrasting examples such as hard rocker Pete Townshend of The Who (labeling irresponsible musical artists who defy their fans and embrace materialistic drug use as "decadent assholes")[1] as well as dance pop star Miley Cyrus (being openly frank about her embrace of cocaine and MDMA usage)[2][3][4] both getting press attention for their views.

As well, some artists argue that popular interpretations of their work misunderstand the intent, such as country and folk star John Denver having to persuade critics against hearing hidden innuendo in his hit song "Rocky Mountain High".

[6] The fact that many jazz and swing music artists were frank with each other about cannabis usage, touching on the matter even in song lyrics, attracted critical attention at the time.

Well known music magazine Radio Stars printed a sensationalist article in 1938 by journalist Jack Hanley titled "Exposing the Marijuana Drug Evil in Swing Bands".

[citation needed] In the midst of the Vietnam War and the massive social movements shifting the U.S. cultural ground in the 1950s and 1960s, evolution continued as more and more music began being produced that sent heavily controversial messages.

Things were rapidly changing as many more musical outfits filtered in and out into the American mass media, styles later regarded as garage rock, proto-powerpop, and proto-punk achieved sporadic interest.

Drugs became much more common and easier to obtain in terms of mass production, and other, even newer subgenres of music such as acid rock picked up acclaim due to efforts by groups such as Cream (band), Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Doors, and the Grateful Dead.

As a specific example, rock band Small Faces ended up getting away with releasing two large scale singles with explicit drug references, "Here Come the Nice" and "Itchycoo Park", that proved to be two of their most iconic hits.

[10] The Beatles, widely regarded as the greatest and most influential pop and rock group in modern history,[11] drew influence from its members drug usage and made copious references to the fact in their music.

"[12] Beatles' songs directly taking influence from the band members' drug habits at the time include "Day Tripper", "Got to Get You into My Life", and "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", among others.

For example, 1965's "Day Tripper" focuses lyrically on criticizing a woman who's "taking the easy way out" of her life's troubles and is "a big teaser" while musically being an upbeat, poppy track.

Songwriters John Lennon and Paul McCartney later commented that the record criticized "weekend hippies" from their then position of being "full-time trippers" committed to using drugs experimentally.

[15] While many artists still criticized drug prohibition as well as other matters of government social policy, the toll taken in people's personal lives through addiction caused multiple songwriters to portray dealing and usage in more of a condemning, negative fashion.

During the development of hip-hop music and related genres that were then avant-garde, such as songs by electro artists, many DJs and MCs felt a strong desire to touch on real-life issues among their listeners, particularly discussing matters such as street violence, drug use, and economic inequality.

Writing in the liner notes of his Songs in the Attic album, for example, American pop/rock artist Billy Joel highlighted the anti-drug message of his track "Captain Jack".

The British government, in his opinion, even co-opted him into a Figurehead-type role for a time as part of a specific state anti-heroin crusade; he commented on the matter yet found his high profile useful for actually getting things done.

[1]Singer-songwriter John Lennon, best known as a member of The Beatles, publicly made a variety of statements about illegal drugs during his lifetime; he sometimes confessed to using substances even while feeling like he shouldn't have the urge to.

[12] Members of seminal heavy metal bands Metallica and Megadeth have created a variety of tracks portraying drug use negatively and have also discussed that problems in their past involving substance dependence have personally held them back.

[31] Rock music and its related subgenres have featured a number of warning songs such as Neil Young's "The Needle and the Damage Done" and J.J. Cale's "Cocaine", the latter composition being best known for its Eric Clapton versions.

[28] Despite explicit, condemnatory lyrics, including: "If you want to get down, get down on the ground, cocaine",[32] the track features a musically energetic, upbeat sound and has long been a staple of Clapton's live performances.

[28] "The Needle and the Damage Done" is believed to be written mostly about Young-associate Danny Whitten, a guitarist who in fact died of a drug overdose at the age of only twenty-nine just months after the song's release.

Seminal pop and rock group The Beatles faced commentary for decades about the track "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", a Lennon-McCartney composition with a title that in Acronym form spells LSD.

[5] Some songs that reference drug use are cited as causing emotionally strong feelings in the listener just by hearing them that seem deliberately reminiscent of the actual 'high' sensation, one example being alternative rock band Depeche Mode's 1987 single "Never Let Me Down Again".

[42] In terms of a specific personal example, social activist and musician Linda McCartney is known for publicly remarked that she considered marijuana "pretty lightweight" while finding harder drugs to be "disgusting".

The questions of truly how many popular songs out of the total number created refer in some way to substance use as well as to what degree music referencing drug use influences real-life behavior remain open and complex topics.

The year previous, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had issued an official statement cautioning radio stations to exercise "reasonable judgement" before playing records that might "promote or glorify" illegal drug use.

[citation needed] The authors of the aforementioned SAMSHA study expressed concern at findings such as the fact that only 19% of the songs selected that refer to illicit drugs mentioned any consequence, with many merely depicting intoxication and/or 'high' feelings only.

[50] Looking at the picture more recently, researchers at the University of Michigan long-running 'Monitoring the Future' project stated in 2014 that teenage use "of both alcohol and cigarettes dropped ... to their lowest points since the study began in 1975".

[49] Researchers at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom have also explored drug use in music, proposing that 'drug use' includes both illicit substances as well as conventional over the counter or prescription medications.