musictoenglish blog

Drug and music cultures through the years

Throughout the years drugs and music have created cultural movements that have influenced the lives of musicians and music lovers throughout the world. From the 1950’s until today we can find correlations between the two in certain periods. I’d like to tell you a bit about what I’ve read and what I’ve experienced on this topic.

Heroin can be associated with a lot of different types of music as I’ve reported in some of my past blog entries. To my knowledge I would have to say that it is most closely associated with jazz. In the 1950’s when some of the greatest originators of jazz came to be, you can bet that at least 80% of them were heroin users at one time or another in their lives. It is said that heroin allowed these musicians to be completely immersed in the music or that “the music becomes a part of your soul.” My closest experience to this would have to be when I was the member of a band led by a heroin user. I found and heard magnificent depth in his playing. Solos never went beyond the point of meaningfulness. Since that time the musician has overcome his habit and there seems to be something missing from the music.
It ‘s hard to pinpoint what but to me there is a difference.

In the 1960’s and 70’s marijuana, mescaline, and different forms of LSD were in widespread use in the U.S.. These drugs were associated with the hippie movement which came about during the Vietnam war. The music of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Led Zepplin, Alice Cooper, and a cornucopia of others led this movement. The　“make love not war” slogan was popular. This era was also marked by Woodstock, the music festival that brought together nearly a million people. There were drugs and overdoses galore at this festival. Not only at Woodstock but concert goers all over the U.S. were bombarded with pushers selling all kinds of drugs. They walked around saying THC a dollar, mescaline 3 dollars a hit, marijuana, acid, angel dust speed, downs, you name it. Different pushers would yell out the drug they were selling. Being a youngster at a curious age I can’t say that I didn’t indulge from time to time. However, all is not what it seems. There were times when pushers sold THC ( tablet form of cannabis or marijuana) actually turned out to be animal tranquilizer. Oh well you can’t trust everyone. Followers of Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead called “Deadheads”, of whom my best friend at the time was, were largely acid users. Jerry is said to have tripped ( a term used when you take LSD you “take a trip” or you “trip”) over 250 times.

I can’t seem to find any particular drug or music influenced movement for the 80’s. To me the 80’s was sort of like a transition period. Pop music was overtaken by electronics. Everyone tried to use them but not many bands really knew how to use them artistically.. And so this movement quickly faded.

Sometime in the 90’s the rap, hi hop movement began. This is a definite strong culture both in fashion, in music, in language and in physical movement. Was’ up? (What’s up) It is sung by mostly African American people, except for a phenomenal white man named Eminem. It is my impression that this music relates a bit to cocaine and crack users, inner city people. Maybe it’s just because of movies. I don’t know. I have no experiences in connection with this movement except for maybe friends who wear low riding baggy pants. One interesting unrelated point though, Mick Jagger is said to have had his nostrils operated on due to problems created by snorting too much cocaine.

From the 90’s on the “rave” culture has been in full swing. What is “rave”? According to the dictionary it means: to talk irrationally in or as if in delirium, to declaim wildly with extreme enthusiasm or to move or advance violently. A “ rave” is actually a dance party in which the participants experience a sense of community through the hearing of dance music. This music is classified as “House”, “Club” or “Techno” and is played/created,/mixed by DJ’s. There are a lot of world famous DJ’s touring today like Hernan from Argentina, John Digweed from England just to name two that I know of. Dance music has a strong back beat and is very easy to feel and so the participants usually dance. Raves usually start late and go on in some cases until sunrise. Ecstacy is a drug that is said to be used extensively at raves. This drug creates a feeling of intimacy so you hear people talking about how they love each other when on ecstacy. I imagine cocaine is also among ravers as well. Raves are sometimes held outdoors, or in wide open spaces like a warehouse. In the world’s major cities there are also DJ clubs where people “clubbing”. I’ve have yet to experience a rave although I’ve heard talk about them from friends. My connection here is one of my students who is a DJ and tells me about the goings on in this world. He is trying to branch out into the world. He is very competent in his field.

So it’s interesting to see the correlation that music has with drug use. I think that most famous musicians today, whatever the genre, are turning away from drugs and are tending towards a healthy life. Times change as they always do. But, we never know what’s in store for tomorrow.