MOG

From Bloomberg.com

By Jeremy Gerard

The news flash from Washington crossed my computer screen like a lightning bolt of reality ripping through the Joshua Light Show at a Grateful Dead concert. This was the disturbing story: Alcohol and drug use figure heavily in popular music, according to a study of lyrics to 279 songs presented yesterday at a conference of public health practitioners.

As a result, the study revealed, impressionable teens are getting the impression that drugs and alcohol are fun. Among the survey's straight-faced revelations are that substance abuse is ``commonly associated with partying (54 percent), sex (46 percent), violence (29 percent) and/or humor (24 percent) in songs that impressionable teenagers listen to.

The report did not disclose what substances, if any, the researchers were on when they were drawing their conclusions.

The report, ``Content Analysis of References to Substance Abuse in Popular Music,'' was restricted to the most popular songs of 2005, as reported by Billboard, a music industry trade publication. That raises suspicion right there, since, as everyone knows, there were no popular songs in 2005, only ear candy about drugs, alcohol and sex. For really popular songs about substance abuse, you'd have to go back to Fats Waller (``Viper's Drag''), Sigmund Romberg (``The Drinking Song''), Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer (``One for My Baby and One More for the Road'') or the Jefferson Airplane (``White Rabbit'').

Rap Music

Rap music, according to the survey, and this was another major surprise in the revelations department, featured more references to drugs and alcohol (77 percent) than rock 'n' roll and pop, which were relatively tame at 14 percent and 9 percent, respectively. The study was presented this afternoon at the 135th meeting of the American Public Health Association.

The research team was led by Dr. Brian A. Primack, 38, a medical doctor and researcher at the University of Pittsburgh who specializes in studying adolescent behavior. Primack has previously found that advertising and peer pressure influence teenagers in such areas as smoking and alcohol consumption. What will his next study ponder? Whether teenagers are interested in sex?

The music study reveals that ``the majority of songs with substance use portrayed more positive than negative consequences of use.''

Consequences

``Previous research has shown that exposure to substance use messages in media is linked to actual substance use in adolescents,'' Dr. Primack said in comments posted on the association's Web site. ``That is why we need to be aware of exposures such as these, especially when they are associated with highly positive consequences and associations.''

Independent research (my iPod) reveals that it can be extremely difficult to find fun songs lacking in sin of some sort or other. A small sampling of those songs would include ``Blue-Tail Fly'' (circa 1844), Ella Fitzgerald's popular recording of ``Wacky Dust,'' Bob Dylan's ``Rainy Day Women Nos. 12 and 35,'' the Byrds' ``Eight Miles High,'' the Rolling Stones' ``Sister Morphine'' and most Beatles songs written after 1964.

Then, of course, there are the operas: Do any of the great ones lack a drinking song, an ill-fated wanton and a psychedelic aspect? Puccini? Verdi? (Wagner? Don't even go there.)

It wasn't immediately clear whether any of these songs provoked adverse behaviors by and/or among teenagers. The songs' impact on academe, however, is clear.

(Jeremy Gerard is an editor for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the writer on this story: Jeremy Gerard in New York at jgerard2@bloomberg.net .