Drug use in music

Drug use in music has been a topic of discussion and debate since at least the 1930s, if not earlier. As stated in the old saying 'wine, women and song', association of music with using various substances go back centuries. 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. Social, cultural, legal, and economic challenges to the existence of music referring to recreational drugs have prompted several studies on the link between such references and increased usage among teens and young adults. Findings over multiple decades have had mixed results. Many complicating factors exist; in particular, a song that describes substance abuse in a depressive, emotionally blank fashion may trigger curiosity for one listener as well as revulsion for another. Sporadic calls for music censorship in different counties over the past decades have also had vastly different outcomes.

Multiple musical artists have attracted a public image associated with neutral to positive depictions of drug use in their releases, while others have created works with negative depictions of drug use that condemn individuals such as dealers and suppliers. 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") as well as dance pop star Miley Cyrus (being openly frank about her embrace of cocaine and MDMA usage) 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".

History

Some prominent songs referred to recreational drug use back into even the 1930s. For instance, the W.C. Fields vehicle '' International House'', a bawdy comedy film released in 1933, featured Cab Calloway doing the tune "Reefer Man". 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". Hanley recounted, "One leader told me of a young man in his band who was a crackerjack musician, but who used the weed so consistently that he was quite undependable. The fits of deep depression reefers so often, icproduce would seize him until he had to be restrained, icfrom suicide." The track "If You're a Viper", composed by Stuff Smith and first recorded by his group in 1936, provides another example of the few tracks that made things deeply explicit before the 1960s.

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. Traditionalist-minded individuals expressed outrage at the commercial success of tracks with anti-war slants, with frank discussions of teenage lust, and the like. As stated by a Cumberland University produced study on the matter, "It was not until the aftermath of the sixties youth counterculture ... that drug lyrics became a recurring musical motif."

References to drugs can be found most abundantly in multiple types of music during the 1960s and 1970s. The new subgenre of pop and rock known as psychedelic music started becoming completely mainstream during the former decade. After 1966, with the release of The Beatles' album '' Revolver'', regular audiences embraced eccentric sounds such as those in the song "Tomorrow Never Knows". As well, group The Beach Boys' ''Pet Sounds'' and The Byrds' various singles, particularly "Eight Miles High", also made the drug-influenced style an integral part of popularly known, mainstream commercial music made by American bands. 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. Concept albums in which drug references existed within song after song such as '' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'' (also by The Beatles) and ''Tommy'' (by The Who) became popular, and the broader counterculture itself evolved in different, changing ways as the sixties went on. 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. Mass media evolved to the point that having references to drug use in songs became so common as to be considered 'normal'.

The late-60s in particular became labeled as a "sensory blizzard" due to the imagery and sound explored by multiple bands. 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. "Itchycoo Park" functioned as arguably 1967's 'song of the summer' in the UK. That bureaucracies such as the BBC
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