Drug Culture and the Impressionable Youth

Drug Culture and the Impressionable YouthDrug Culture and the Impressionable Youth oscil new-fangled and roll euphony and rap are the two most listened to genres by teens of the ages nine to twenty- five. Both genres are linked to the drug culture quite oft time through older music and music today. Rock and rap music communicate drug culture ideals to the impressionable youth through Lyrics that speak about a drug come, a trance- resembling rhythm that makes an experience either better or worse, and by the artists image in the media. All of these play a type on how the youth are captivated in society. Rock and roll has been linked to the drug culture for many years. Whether a song was written about a certain drug or whether the song was written on drugs has had society worried for its children. Children are unendingly singing, whether with the music or just to themselves, but do parents listen to what they are singing? A usual rock band, named one thousand Day, have a a cou ple of(prenominal) songs that reference illicit drug content. The song Green Day contains lyrics that reference an experience after smoking marijuana. Here are some lyrics from the songA small cloud has fallen, The w earne mist hit the ground,My lungs comfort me with joy, Vegging on one detail,The rest just crowds around, My eyes itch of burning red,Picture sounds of moving insects so surreal,Lay around looks like I found something new,Laying in my bed, I think Im in left field,I picture someone, I think its you,Your standing so damn close, My body begins to swell,Why does 1+1 make 2?Even though this song was written in 1990, it is still played on a few radio stations today. The album 1,039 Smoothed Out Slappy Hours, sold over five hundred thousand copies. And since then Green Day has become more obliterateular with the youth. Green is only an example of todays music, but The Beatles and The Rolling Stones were huge role models as the drug culture started. The Beatles lyrics are descriptive of encounters with intoxi assholets and rely on the images and the insider knowledge associated with the meanings put forward by The Beatles (Blackman86). The Beatles had the world at their fingertips they held the record for the most people to go deaf at a concert, not beca give the music was loud but because of the thousands of girls screaming at the top of their lungs (Blackman86). After the American tours, The Beatles songs moved onto new subjects with closer links to recreational drug use. On the song, tomorrow Never Knows, Lennon offers drug advice about the feeling brought on by drug consumption (Blackman85). In an interview by Queen and Life magazine in 1967, Sir Paul McCartney states that LSD opened my eyes. It made me a better, more honest, and a more tolerant member of society (Uncut). Rock and roll lyrics speak more about an experience on an illicit drug while the next genre, rap, speak more about selling drugs to make money. belt has not al shipway been li nked to the drug culture till about the 1990s. When children listen to the lyrics of certain rap songs, they hear how selling drugs or fetching drugs to make life easier. jibe to Dr. Herd, an associate professor in the division of Community Health and Human Development at the University of California, illegal drug use became increasingly linked during the late 1990s to wealth, glamour, and social standing, when in comparison to earlier years, when rap music was more likely to have depicted the dangers and negative consequences of drug use (Yang). Rap music is especially appealing to one-year-old people, many of whom look up to rappers as role models. As a public health researcher, and as a parent of a seven year old, I am concerned about the impact that long-term exposure to this music has on its listeners, says Dr. Herd (Yang). Ludacris, who is popular with an age range from twelve to twenty-five, published a song called Blueberry Yum Yum. Throughout the song, Ludacris raps abou t how excellent blueberry yum yum marijuana is. Here a few lines from this songGot a little bit of blueberry yum, yumAnd I never woulda thought that it could taste this goodThank God for the man who put it in my hoodIts got me singin melodies I never thought I wouldIm feeling sorry for the homies who be smokin woodChop chop, break it down for a player like yeIm bout to find me a woman and skeetThis song was on the album, The Red Light District and sold over twenty million copies global (Blackman85). Ludacris is not the only rapper that sings about enjoyment of smoking marijuana other names are Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, and Eminem are a few examples of outstanding name rappers that have followers of young ages listening to their lyrics and singing along. Adolescents are exposed to approximately two hundred and fifty-one references to explicit substance use per day (Parker-Pope). Adolescents are exposed to music more than any other type of media. An example is music compared to film. Ado lescents listen to an average of sixteen hours each week of music compared to an average of six hours each week for films (Parker-Pope). Music is a powerful social force that taps into an individuals personal identity, memories, and mood. Lyrics are strong ways to communicate to the impressionable youth about the drug culture but there are more ways to communicate alike like a trance-like rhythm. Rock and roll music and rap have many different types of sounds and beats. Shiela Whiteley, Building on Middleton and Muncies analysis, says there are stages of how rock and rap music influence drug use through a song. Whiteley says, The first stage is manipulation of timbres, blurred, bright, tingly overlapping associated with the intensification of tripping second stage, the upward movement in pitch which compares with the experience of being high third, the characteristic use of harmonies lurching and oscillating which change focus fourth, the sudden use of regular or irregular rhythms suggesting both the rush of a drug but also the trance-like condition of sounds capes and which acts to disorientate conventional musical structure, offering new enhancements from new technology employed in music and also through the process of hallucination (Blackman100). Teens pick music to go with their drug experience. Rod Stanley, editor of Dazed and Confused magazine, says in an interview if there was a new drug that came out in todays society, there would a new genre of music spring up over night, he continues to say young people work out the best music to experience a drug (Sampson). The image of the artist has always been a problem in the media and how parents can limit a child from listening to the artist music. Image is the most important part of todays world. How you look, talk, act, and present yourself is how the world will judge you. In line of products to the 1970s where artists like Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, or Elvis Presely were judge on their music. Jim Morris on died in 1971 of an apparent heart attack of an overdose, but is remembered dark and psychedelic lyrics and for occasionally taking off his clothes on stage. Drug deaths are highly romanticized in the world of popular music by the media, fans, musicians, and the industry (Blackman94). Drug induced deaths of pop stars establish new consumer shrines that feed on and promote person and artistic mystery, followed by endless repackaging of existing material, remixes or releases of unsanctioned songs (Blackman94). Kurt Cobain, former lead vocaliser of Nirvana, overdosed numerous times and was told to go to rehab but disappeared and committed suicide. Rap has a bad rap for its image because of how the artist presents themselves in the media. Snoop Dogg has been arrested five times with the possession of marijuana (Whillans). Snoop Dogg is not the only one with a bad reputation on getting caught with marijuana. Such artists as Juvenile, Lil Wayne, Sir Paul McCartney, Keith Richards, and fast one McClure are just a few examples of popular