From the Youth
This article is written by a fifteen-year-old who shares his perspective on the effect of music on adolescents. He attempts to explain his position on rejecting the influence of drug-idled music and urges his fellow peers to do the same.
Mostly, he discusses how he fears those he assumes listens to rap music, “I can tell if a group of people listen to rap music or not. Just by the way they walk, talk, and dress. And I for one think that rap music is sending out a bad message to everybody” and shares his honest dislike for those emo kids, “EMO music gets kids to cut and try to kill themselves.” As expected his all-knowing judgments are slightly exaggerated, but amusing none the less. His final demands is to fight conformity and live life as squeaky clean as possible.
No matter how poorly written (he is only fifteen), his opinion is definitely contrasting to others his age, which is valuable when analyzing such subjects.
The San Francisco Movement
By the 1960s, drugs were becoming infused in music as well as the minds of the younger generation; and the west coast was the first to embrace this new found counterculture. As conservatives nationwide began to tighten their beliefs, young liberals were embracing their new found liberation, as a revolution began to take place, full of psychedelics, sex, and a new kind of rock n’ roll. Young drifters from all over the country flocked to San Francisco, with flowers in their hair, and acid under their tongues.
The Grateful Dead (home 710 Ashbury)
They were the pioneers of the San Fran movement, as they epitomized the evolution a new sound, full of rock, folk, country, bluegrass, reggae, jazz, psychedelia, and even gospel. The Grateful Dead, who hailed from the Bay Area, and lived in the Haight, connected with their fans in an intimate manner, playing free live shows, and welcoming drifters to their home town. People embraced them for their aura of highness, and fans followed them in their lifestyle of acid and summer lovin’. To this day, Jerry Garcia and the rest of “the Dead” are remembered all over the bay as the grandfathers of the San Francisco sound.
Janis Joplin (home 122 Lyon)
Janis Joplin moved to San Francisco from Texas in the early 60s, hoping to pursue a career as a blues singer. After landing an act as the voice of Big Brother and the Holding Company in 1966, she became beloved in the new culture of controversy, with her raspy vocals, and unapologetic attitude concerning her lifestyle of a lot of sex, and a lot of drugs. By ‘68, she went solo, as her career flourished, playing with acts such as Hendrix, the Grateful Dead, and Jefferson Airplane. Her last recordings becae her legacy, as she was found dead due to a heroin OD in 1970, at only 27. She still remains the princess of rock n’ roll.
To this day, San Francisco remains a home to the offbeat. The 1960s movement made it a city of acceptance to the outcasts, and “frowned upon” members of society. It has truly never lost this mentality, and the pioneers who created this legacy will be infinitely remembered.
A little Help from the NY Times
To get a grip on these words and theories that are being thrown at you, the New York Times offers a handle for comprehension. Within the post, it discussed a study where the 279 most popular songs from 2005 are analyzed for mentions of drug use.
The studies showed that the correlation between television and drugs is equal to the correlation between music and drugs because the exposure is more frequent for music. It is suggested that music influences the identity development in adolescents significantly.
Read the article, it’s enjoyable and professional because the New York Times is staffed with smarties.
Role Models or Stoners?
Many teens want to believe that their favorite band is perfect because they are their idols. It’s like a five year old believing whatever their parents tell them, when no one is right all of the time.
As an example, Dave Grohl of The Foo Fighters admits that he used drugs at one point in his life during an interview with Rolling Stone Magazine. Now, Dave quit because he didn’t want to “get ***ked up anymore,” but not all musicians that use have a side of repentance.
Some kept on using until the damage was irreversible, like Ozzy Osbourn. Whenever he speaks on his reality show, all it sounds like is a grown man channeling a baby’s mumblings.
Now, for some odd reason or another it’s impossible to make a record when your brain is mush like squished peas. No idea why, but hey the glamourous life is full of secrets afterall, isn’t it?
“Sex, Drugs, Rock-n-Roll”
The cliched phrase goes, “sex, drugs, rock-n-roll.”
That is the cliched lifestyle of a rockstar and somehow it has become accepted that all rock musicians do drugs. Why is it then that the “lifestyles” of the members somehow make their way into their music? Is it really neccessary? Is there really nothing else out there in the world to sing about besides drugs?
I just don’t understand why drug refrences need to be in songs. Is it to interest their listeners into trying it too? Is it to keep the police on their toes? Or is it just to make a catchy song and make off of it?
We want to know. Tell us. What do you think?
Exploding Plastic Inevitable
To set the stage for the Velvet Underground era, it must be realized the culture and interactions with drugs burned the path for those to follow.
Andy Warhol, their main supporter and manager, painted the scene around the band. From a chapter in the book Can’t Find My Way Home: America in the Great Stoned Age, 1945-2000 by Martin Torgoff explains the image of the Velvet Underground. “The band was always dressed in black, expect for the blond German model-chanteuse Nico, who would just stand in her while pantsuit as everyone raged around her, trancelike in a lone spotlight.” He also mentions how the scene the Velvet Underground partook in “was rife with heavy amphetamine, which was like pouring gasoline on a fire.”
The Exploding Plastic Inevitable was Warhol’s flip of a wrist to bring the Velvet Underground the brink of superstars.”The Velvet Underground and the stage dancers enhanced the overwhelming drugginess of the atmosphere.”
Torgoff explained the music’s impact and how it shook the foundations that the audience danced upon.”The music they played was loud, cacophonous, but at the same time uniquely crafted; the songs themselves were dark and sinister, with spare, Poe-like lyrics describing the same provocative subjects that Warhol treated in his films.” In relation to Warhol and the Velvet Underground, they influenced each other and the drugs that were taken only brought the experimental band to the masses.
Though Lou Reed, the lead singer of the band wrote his songs about past experiences. In the song “Venus in Furs,” Reed touched upon his college days and copping heroin in the dingy hallways of Harlem and, of course, S&M. “The tense, emaciated Lou Reed sang the songs in a detached and nasal monotone, with an attitude that seemed to reek of methamphetamine hydrochloride.” One of the Velvet’s most famous songs “‘Heroin’ itself had become like a shot of dope being jacked into the bloodstream.”
Mary Woronov, a member of the Warhol scene and a Torgoff interviewee said, “Oh, it was all very pro-drug, the whole presentation, when the Velvets played ‘Heroin,’ people would shoot up right there on the dance floor, and we’d spotlight them.”
Because of the ruckus that Warhol caused and the pedestal he put the Velvet Underground upon, it will forever influence musicians, as well as drug users.
“Venus in Furs”
Drug-Related Deaths
No one can really determine when or how drugs became an element in the world of music and pop culture. It is nearly impossible to uncover the triggers that took these chemicals from mere substances and made them taboo. They became tools for steering creativity and finding some kind of enlightenment, as both artists and fans alike became semi-united through them, and their danger was disregarded. But as so many young talents’ lives were taken, the public began to truly acknowledge their lethality.
- Steve Clark (Def Leppard guitarist) painkillers overdose; died January 8, 1991 at age 30. #mce_temp_url#query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CEEDF153EF933A25752C0A967958260&sec=&spon=&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
- Kurt Cobain (Nirvana) heroin overdose/gunshot; possible suicide; died April 5, 1994 at age 27. #mce_temp_url#http://www.tmtm.com/sides/kc.html
- John Entwistle (The Who bassist) heart failure due to long-term cocaine use; died June 27, 2002 at age 57. #mce_temp_url#http://archives.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/News/06/28/entwistle.lead/
- Peter Farndon (The Pretenders bassist) drowned/heroin overdose; died April 14, 1983 at age 31. #mce_temp_url#http://www.pretenders.org/aryockel.htm
- Paul Gonsalves (jazz tenor saxaphonist) narcotics overdose; died May 15, 1974 at age 31.
- Bobby Hatfield (The Righteous Brothers) heart attack due to cocaine use; died November 5, 2003 at age 63. #mce_temp_url#http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/news/wire/sns-ap-obit-hatfield,0,5600912.story
- Jimi Hendrix (musician) vomit inhalation due to alcohol and barbiturate overdose; died September 18, 1970 at age 27. #mce_temp_url#http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=3623
- James Honeymoon-Scott (The Pretenders) cocaine overdose; died June 16, 1982 at age 26.
- Brian Jones (Rolling Stones) drowned due to alcohol and barbiturate overdose; died July 3, 1969 at age 23. #mce_temp_url#http://books.google.com/books?id=DObXzPKC3i4C&pg=PA115&lpg=PA115&dq=brian+jones+rolling+stones+obituary&source=web&ots=rJcxe85MG8&sig=0tA_ofI8bFewtbKi45Zz7-SYvsw&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=3&ct=result
- Janis Joplin (rock and roll/blues singer) heroin overdose; died October 4, 1970 at age 27. #mce_temp_url#http://www.times.com/books/99/05/02/specials/joplin-obit.html
- Phil Lynott (Thin Lizzy) heroin overdose; died January 4, 1986 at age 36. #mce_temp_url#http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/4/newsid_4041000/4041511.stm
- Jonathan Melvoin (Smashing Pumpkins keyboardist) heroin overdose; died July 12, 1996 at age 34. #mce_temp_url#http://landslide.2007.org/omnipedia/tragedy.htm
- Brent Mydland (Grateful Dead keyboardist) morphine/cocaine overdose; died July 26, 1990 at age 37. #mce_temp_url#http://www.cbc.ca/arts/story/2006/06/04/welnick-obit.html
- Bradley Nowell (Sublime) heroin overdose; died May 25, 1996 at age 28. #mce_temp_url#http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Palms/1476/nowell.html
- Gram Parsons (The Byrds/The Flying Burrito Brothers) alcohol and morphine overdose; died September 19, 1973 at age 26. #mce_temp_url#http://ebni.com/byrds/memgrp6.html
- John Phillips (The Mamas and the Papas) heart failure due to narcotics abuse; died March 18, 2001 at age 65. #mce_temp_url#http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/themamasthepapas/articles/story/5931599/papa_john_phillips_dies
- Dee Dee Ramone (The Ramones) heroin overdose; died June 5, 2002 at age 50. #mce_temp_url#http://archives.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/Music/06/06/deedee.ramone/
- Hillel Slovak (Red Hot Chili Peppers) heroin overdose; died June 25, 1988 at age 26. #mce_temp_url#http://www.nndb.com/people/823/000058649/
- Sid Vicious (Sex Pistols) heroin overdose; died February 2, 1979 at age 21. #mce_temp_url#http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/2/newsid_2523000/2523601.stm
- Jim Morrison (The Doors) hemorrhage as a result of heroin overdose and alcohol; died July 2, 1971 at age 27. #mce_temp_url#http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/3/newsid_3776000/3776701.stm
- Keith Moon (The Who) sedative overdose; died September 7, 1978 at age 32. #mce_temp_url
Superfan for Andre Nickatina
As a college student, living in the dorms and surrounded by various people bopping to various music at various levels, I have acquired a taste and recognition of new and different artists. Though, one of my suite mates could be hearing playing David Bowie followed by Mindless Self Indulgence to Andre Nickatina. Jamie Williams answered a few questions about how the artist’s music has affected her and the people who listen as well.
Q. What influence do you think Andre Nickatina has on the audience who listens to his music?
His musical catalogue flows like a story, but only one you would hear if you listened to it through and through. That’s why kids keep listening. They want to hear what he has to say. I don’t think his music necessarily influences kids to make the decisions he may have made, it just tells them about what he’s been through. His albums are his autobiography.
Q. What do you think his music emphasizes upon?
Andre Nickatina’s audience is surprisingly white, for a hip-hop artist (forgive the generalization). I think kids, specifically from the bay area (Nikatina’s hometown), relate to his music because they feel like he is real and goes through the same things that they do. And he has an amazing flow. He’s an experienced enough artist to capitalize on his audience and so he sings the things he knows they want to hear.
Q. What song makes you think most of drugs upon listening to it?
“Chocolate Thai.” It’s also my favorite. Maybe “Ayo for Yayo,” too.
Q. If you could label one drug on Andre Nickatina, what would it be? Why?
Cocaine. Because he self admittedly “smokes chewy like a mother fucking nut.”
Young teenagers mimic Nickatina.
