Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Ms. Huizar
UWRT 1102
27 March 2017
Shout-out to all of this ganja, blowin down trees like a new forest fire! I thought a
quote from my favorite hip hop group the Underachievers, would be an appropriate way to start
this off. When you were younger did, your parents keep you from listening to certain types of
music because of the content within the songs? Mine did, constantly If I might add and I would
get in trouble if they caught me in the attempt of listening to, in their words dangerous music. I
would always ask myself what made it so dangerous, what could my parents possibly be so
afraid of me hearing, that they were willing to punish me for listening to it? That goes into the
question of, are people today a product of their own environment? Do the things that surround
humans in media and entertainment today, influence what we do in our own personal lives? In
some instances, the answer could be yes, like how we are influenced by the way our favorite
entertainers dress or how we perceive the correct way to eat and stay healthy is portrayed in
media today. But it can be argued there are some influences from societys favorite entertainers,
could impact our own personal lives for the worst. Organizations like the AAP (American
Academy of Pediatrics) or Parents Music Resource Center, believe it is in childrens best interest
to listen to lyrics that are not violent, sexist, drug-oriented, or antisocial because they need
positive influences in their life at an early age. Even though they have no knowledge of any
study or any link ever to the correlation of music lyrics influencing and impacting the behavior
of adolescents and pre-adolescents. When children grow up, they are not going to have their
parents there to hold their hands and keep them away from all the harmful things, that can reach
them and influence them in this world. They are going to have even less of a chance to stay away
from the bad influences and habits in life, if they are not educated about influences such as
substance abuse at an early age and taught about the effects and consequences of what they are
hearing and seeing in their favorite music and media. Adolescent teens and pre-adolescents
should not be monitored and kept away from songs speaking about drugs and other bad habits
because drug use in the United States has remained steady without spiking for years now with
minor exceptions. That is even with drug references in music having risen over the decades.
There has also never been one study ever that has correlated music lyrics and media content, to
Over the years there have been certain spikes in drugs around the United States. The only
real recent spike has been with heroin increasing 145% in use since the last statistics taken in
2007 (Suctti, 2016). And heroin is not a drug that rarely ever referenced in todays music,
especially in hit, popular songs. The most popular drug of choice is marijuana and the percent of
adolescents using the substance peaked around 1997-1999. It saw a steady decrease until 2007,
and ever since it has been on a slow but steady rise (National Drug Institute, 2016). The most
popular drug of the 80s which was cocaine has seen a steady decrease, since its peaking of
popularity in the decade of the 80s. The rate of use has fallen to just above 2% in all United
Other drugs have come into the public spotlight over the years like Molly/MDMA, which
saw an increase in use in the early 2010s, but has been declining in use ever since. In 2014 a
study was done by the National Survey on Drug Use and Health concluded that just 0.7% of
adolescents between the ages on 12-17 used molly in the past year (Maldonado, 2016). So,
except for marijuana, which has remained the consistent most popular drug among not just
adolescents, but by the majority of people in the world, most of drugs in todays society seem to
be a running fad for a while and their popularity and usage rate eventually falls, in a varied
amount of time. The same things can be said about hallucinogens, which peaked in the hippy age
and have been in steady decline ever since except for one small rise in the late 1990s (National
Drug Institute, 2016). Or methamphetamines/pain killers which have also been in a steady
decline since its peak in the late 1990s (National Drug Institute, 2016). As a matter of fact, in
the statistics taken by the National Drug Institute shows that besides marijuana, there is no other
illicit drug that is trending upwards currently towards adolescents (National Drug Institute,
2016).
Over the years music has increasingly become more and more graphic and personal as
time goes by. The world has come a long way since what was thought to be the new edgy music
of the day that parents would keep adolescents away from. Artists like Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan,
and the Beatles topped the Charts back in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. One big difference is the
most popular genre of music in todays day and age. In 2015 per Spotify, hip hop is now the
most listened to and popular genre in the entire world (Diaz, 2015). Naturally this is going to
lead to the culture of hip hop, being integrated into todays society among the youth, and the
influences from the genre to be prevalent in society today. But do the overwhelming references
to substances use hinder the adolescents of today, and does it influence their lives in a negative
way? In a study done by Denise Herd in 2008 illustrating the amount of drug references and uses
in hip hop between 1979-1997, the statistics in the rise of references having to do with drug use
in hip hop have been quite staggering. Between the years of 1979-1984 Herd recorded 11% of all
hit record songs in hip hop contained references to some type of substance (Herd, 2008). In
1985-1989, that number rose steadily up to 19% of hit record hip hop songs, contained some
reference in a way or another to an illegal substance (Herd, 2008). By 1990-1993 that 19% had
jumped to a substantial 45% of hit record songs that had contained a reference to substance abuse
(Herd, 2008). Between the years of 1993-1997 that number jumped to 69% of all hit record hip
hop songs contained at least one type of reference to substance abuse (Herd, 2008). So, that 18-
year span that Herd focused her study on, saw a 68% rise in some type of drug reference in hip
hop music.
Not only has hip hop been on the rise when it comes to drug references in its lyrics, it is
also by far the genre in music that talks about and references it the most. In a study done by the
Office of National Drug Control Policy in 1999, it displayed that hip hop talked about drug use,
more than any other genre by a wide margin. In the study sample that they took, 63% of all the
hip-hop songs that they listened to contained a drug reference somewhere in the song (Roberts,
Henriksen, Christenson 1999). The top three genres after that were the Top 100 which contained
11% of drug references, Alternative which contained 11%, and Heavy Metal which contained
9% of drug references in its song (Roberts, Henriksen, Christenson 1999). Now a regular person
would think since the most popular music genre in the world has such a heavy undertone of drug
references in its music, then it would be an easy and heavy influence in the adolescents of today.
Well as already stated, that is incorrect and the usage rate of drug use among adolescents has
remained steady and not spiked, even with the spike in drug references in their most popular
music genre.
With organizations like the AAP so worried about the potential effects of what todays
adolescents are listening to, one would assume there has been a study done, that shows a possible
correlation between music/media and adolescent behavior. Well I will save the time for you to go
and try to find one because there is not a single study out there that proves there is any
correlation whatsoever between what adolescents are watching and listening to and how they
behave in their own personal lives. The AAP specifically states themselves that there has ever
done a study done, that has proven there is any relationship between the two things, but they feel
that more research needs to be done to make sure (American Academy of Pediatrics, 1996). In a
study done by the Office of National Drug Control policy in 1999, there was not enough
evidence shown in the study that was done to prove that anything in song lyrics had any certain
influences on the adolescences in the study(Roberts, Henriksen, Christenson 1999). They did
conclude the certain things in music videos or in TV might potentially have in influence but there
was still not enough evidence to make a conclusive answer (Roberts, Henriksen, Christenson
1999).
Mark D. Reed and Pamela Wilcox Rountree, conducted a study in 1997 that did not show
any correlation between music or media with substance abuse, but it talked about Peer Pressure
on substance abuse (Reed, Rountree, 1997). It illustrated that there is a strong possibility that
adolescent drug use, is connected to fitting in with the permissive group norms within the group
that adolescents spend time with (Reed, Rountree, 1997). In other words, kids just want to fit in.
Just think back to when you were younger, most people always said as kids they will never be
the one to drink, smoke, or do drugs. But as the children go from the pre-adolescent years and
enter the adolescent years of high school, things start to change. You start seeing the same kids
from back in elementary school and middle school who said they would never drink or do drugs,
doing the exact opposite thing they said they would do. As more and more people start to dabble
in drinking and illicit drug activities, it easy for raging hormone teenagers to succumb to the
pressure of wanting to fit in with their peers, and not be outsiders to the social norms. That is
something that my parents, did not put a big emphasis on when I was growing up. They didnt
focus on telling me to just be myself more and to not worry about what all my friends were
doing; it truly did not affect me in the first place anyway. I wish they would have focused a little
bit more on teaching me on how not to succumb to the peer pressure that you can go through
mentally, because it got me in a good amount of trouble when I was younger and it is not
something that I can take back now. I have seen multiple friends go to rehab, just for wanting to
fit in with the group and it is something that is not worth it.
Adolescents do not need to be censored from explicit types of music from their parents or
organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics and Parents Music Resource Center, just
because the subject matter of the music is perceived to have a negative undertone or message.
There has been a drastic rise in drug references over the past few decades, in the most popular
genre of music in the world; hip hop. Yet with the rise of drug references in the most popular
genre in the world, there is no drastic spike in drug use among adolescents, during that time.
There is also no study that proves the correlation of music and media with adolescent behavior
(American Academy of Pediatrics, 1996). Mark D. Reed and Pamela Wilcox Rountree,
underwent a study in 1997 that showed evidence of drug use among adolescents having to do
with fitting in with permissive group norms among their peers (Reed, Rountree, 1997). That is
personally what I have experienced in my own life, growing up as an adolescent, I just wanted to
fit in with my friends and that lead to some bad decisions. Conforming to group norms got me
into trouble that could have affected my college career and entire future. That is what parents of
preadolescents and adolescents should be focusing on and teaching their kids about, when it
substance abuse. Teach them that there is nothing wrong with just saying no and being the one in
the amongst their friends who does and goes about things a little differently compared to the
others. Dont focus on censoring music and other media content from adolescents because that is
American Academy of Pediatrics, Impact of Music Lyrics and Music Videos on Children and
Youth, Australian Federation for the Family, Pediatrics, Vol. 98, Issue 6, Pg. 1219-
24 March 2017.
Angel Diaz. Hip-Hop Is the Most Listened To Genre in the World and There's a Study To Prove
2017.
Ben Carter. "Drugs in Hip Hop: A 30 year Analysis", Genius, 2015. https://genius.com/a/drugs-
Negative Effects of Country Music on Implicit Attitudes, Explicit Attitudes, and Brand
Choice., Journal of Applied Social Psychology, Vol. 39, Issue 11, Pages 2689-2705,
February 2017.
Denise Herd. "Changes in drug use prevalence in rap music songs, 19791997", Addiction
Research and Theory, Vol. 16, Issue 2, Pg. 167-180, April 2008.
Donald F. Roberts, Lisa Henriksen, and Peter G. Christenson. "Substance Use in Popular Movies
and Music", Office of National Drug Control Policy, Washington, D.C. : The Office
1999. http://uncc.worldcat.org/title/substance-use-in-popular-movies-and-musics.
John Market. Sing a Song of Drug Use-Abuse: Four Decades of Drug Lyrics in Popular Music-
From the Sixties through the Nineties, Sociological Inquiry, Vol. 72, Issue 2, Pg. 194-
March 23 2017.
Mark D. Reed, Pamela Wilcox Rountree. Peer pressure and adolescent substance use, Journal
National Institute on Drug Abuse. Monitoring the Future Survey: High School and Youth
Sarah Yang. "New study finds glamorization of drugs in rap music jumped dramatically over two
Stewart Pearl. Whos Playin Whom?, Black Issues in High Education, Vol. 21, Issue 5, Pg.
March 20 2017.
Susan Scutti CNN. Worldwide drug use steady, but heroin on rise in U.S., DoThanFirst, 2016.