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Popular Music Substance Abuse

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There has been a great deal of concern across the globe about substance misuse, alcohol consumption, and violence among the youth. It is often seen that popular music lyrics heavily incorporates drugs, sex and violence (Christenson et. al, 2012). For example, on analyzing the 279 most popular songs from 2005, it was reported that 93 of the songs explicitly portrayed substance use like alcohol, marijuana, tobacco or some other drug, with only 4% communicating an anti-use message (Slater, Michael, Kimberly, 2013). Popular music is available to adolescents from multiple sources; this allows them to listen to these songs in diverse conditions. Parents are often unaware of the music that their children listen to and often lack the power over it due to the use of downloaded music and headphones. Thus adolescents are easily exposed to music with explicit references. The average American youth listens to music from 1.5 to 2.5 hours per day. Research has reported that these music-video messages produce significant changes in the …show more content…

It often displays and speaks more about sex, partying and having a good time rather than about studying hard in order to get into a good college. It is important to remember that compared to an average person, these musicians lead a life of high sensations and extreme emotions, their daily routines constantly exposes them to venues focused on these aspects of life. Thus they often focus on the world of alcohol and drugs; often presenting and exaggerating the positive effects of these substances and neglecting the negative effects, thereby promoting the use of these substances. Adolescents make media choices not based on how realistic it is but on its ability to provide and portray fantasy, ecstasy, excitement and amusement. Inevitably, the patterns of content in popular music will tend to reflect trends in the youth culture (Christenson et. al,

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