popular music references to illicit substances

From a study by U. of Pittsburgh professors entitled "Content Analysis of Tobacco, Alcohol, and other Drugs in Popular Music" as published by the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine (hat tip: Touchstone)...

Of the 279 songs, 93 (33.3%) portrayed substance use, with an average of 35.2 substance references per song-hour. Portrayal of substance use varied significantly (P < .001) by genre, with 1 or more references in 3 of 35 pop songs (9%), 9 of 66 rock songs (14%), 11 of 55 R & B/hip-hop songs (20%), 22 of 61 country songs (36%), and 48 of 62 rap songs (77%).

While only 2.9% of the 279 songs portrayed tobacco use, 23.7% depicted alcohol use, 13.6% depicted marijuana use, and 11.5% depicted other or unspecified substance use.

In the 93 songs with substance use, it was most often motivated by peer/social pressure (48%) or sex (30%); use was commonly associated with partying (54%), sex (46%), violence (29%), and/or humor (24%).

Only 4 songs (4%) contained explicit anti-use messages, and none portrayed substance refusal. Most songs with substance use (68%) portrayed more positive than negative consequences; these positive consequences were most commonly social, sexual, financial, or emotional.


And then, this sobering observation:

The average adolescent is exposed to approximately 84 references to explicit substance use daily in popular songs, and this exposure varies widely by musical genre.

That's 30,000 annually from an average of nearly 2.5 hours of listening per day. So, I guess we should add "kill your radio" to "kill your TV"-- or at least, take care in what you allow your children to listen to.