High Society

Flick through the history books from era to era and trend to trend, and you will see that an occurring factor appears throughout, this being the heavy link between narcotics and music trends or genres. Reggae and Marijuana being a prime example of the relationship that music shares with various different illegal substances.

Music has always been a form of expression and has simultaneously developed with time, artists are constantly finding new and experimental ways to make and produce music therefore creating new trends or genres of music.

In society our preferred music genre shapes our personality and how we view life, the clothes we wear, the places we go and the people we associate ourselves with. These are all great examples of how your taste of music defines your personal characteristics, another example of this would be the drugs consumed by many whilst listening. This is what interests me the most, how an individual or a groups choice of preferred music could associate themselves with both legal and illegal substances.

Are people wrongly stereotyped because they listen to genres such as ‘Techno’ or ‘Trance’ as someone who ‘drops pills’ and can you be interested in a music genre based solely by the sound? Or is there a miscreant nature to your desired genre? These are the questions that are often left unanswered with strong arguments coming from each side of the debate.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Mitchell Coppin, a club event organiser from Plymouth, we talked about the influence that drugs have on live music events and he gives first hand experiences of what really happens on a Saturday night in Britain’s ocean city:

‘Chemical Bonds’ an article by Kevin Sampson that was published for The Guardian in 2008 acts as a timeline of narcotic trends and the music genre or movement they accompanied. This piece of journalism also states the originalities of different substances and why they were first developed. For example, MDMA or ecstasy as it is more commonly referred to, was developed by Merck pharmaceuticals to simply make people communicate, and was first trialled as a drug to help revive marriages that were stuck in a rut.

Recreational drug usage has and always will be a massive debate throughout society, with the majority thinking that consuming drugs is classed as anti-social behaviour. However, there are advocates for the consumption of certain drugs and that the effects of these substances can have a positive effect on one’s personality or being.

Figure 1. Survey data as an infographic.

Timothy Leary, once an instructor on the Psychology department at Harvard University felt that the use of psychedelic drugs improved personal development after spending time consuming Psilocybin, commonly known as magic mushrooms. Ken Kesey, the author of best-selling novel ‘One flew over the cuckoo’s nest’  was another advocate for recreational drug usage, after previously volunteering for a LSD experiment hosted by the CIA that actually inspired him to write said novel.

Psychedelic drugs and hippie culture came hand-in-hand through the 1960s and movements such as the ‘Summer of Love’  which occurred in 1967 saw roughly 100,000 people gather in the Haight-Ashbury area of San Francisco. Although this event was not about drugs LSD did however become a huge part of the ‘flower children’s’  or as commonly referred too ‘Hippies’ diet.

The London house scene, 1987, was another movement that received an abundance of attention and was in a period known as the ‘second summer of love’ due to the rise of acid house music and an overall increase in ecstasy intake. However, hippies were out of the equation and football hooligans swapped the punch-ups for a pill and the football for a rave. This movement led to one of dance musics most popular era’s, the illegal rave scene.

As Police become aware of what was happening at raves and events in clubs they tried to weed the party-goers out by enforcing strong laws on clubs, disabling them from hosting regular events. Which inevitably starved the ‘raver’s’  thirst for house music. This forced the scene underground, clubs could no longer host these events and what could of killed most music trends and genres only made acid house stronger.

 

Figure 2. Ecstasy usage chart.

Abandoned warehouse? Check. Acid house DJ? Check. More drugs than a Columbian cartel? Check. Massive crowd of ravers? Check. These were the fundamentals for one of Britain’s biggest musical movements. Raves became more popular due to the style of music really complimenting the atmosphere of a dark and grotty warehouse alongside a budget light system and a smoke machine less capable of filling a room than an E-cigarette…… if you were lucky.

Statistics in the ‘2015/2016 Crime Survey for England and Wales’ that was published in July 2016 revealed that drug usage is much lower through all ages than that of 10 years ago. However, although the figures have dropped in the last decade there is still a huge amount of people taking drugs in the UK. 18% of people aged between 16-24 years old had used drugs in the last year, amounting to 1.1 million young adults taking drugs throughout the country. This figure roughly works out that one in every five young adults have taken drugs in this last year.

The crime survey also indicates that cannabis is the most used drug throughout all ages and that 15.8% of the 16-24 age range have taken cannabis in the last year equating to nearly 975,000 young adults. In the same age group the second most used drug is ecstasy with a total of 4.5% usage amounting too 279,000 young adults.

The increase in young adults taking ecstasy over the last three years is not a surprise to me, as you can see from the graph above the proportion of 16-24 year old people has not quite reached the heights of what it once was but there is a significant surge in usage in recent times. Interestingly this coincides with Britain’s illegal rave renaissance which controversial broadcaster Vice™ produced a documentary about in May, 2016 called ‘Locked off’, which focused on the recent increase of illegal raves happening up and down the country and the police effort on stopping these events from happening. A clear link between drug usage increasing through a musical movement, sadly another statistic also coexists which is that the drug related death toll in the UK at it’s highest ever figure.

Drug related deaths have reached their highest in the UK and this could be due to the fact that more people are taking ecstasy pills or MDMA powder because of the happy euphoric effects and cheap prices. Unfortunately when buying ecstasy you can never be certain of what the pills actually consist of, with many manufactures implementing very little MDMA and using lots of various different cutting agents to help boost their profits. Another substance that is occasionally found in pills is PMA, this is not ecstasy and is a substance that on more than one occasion has caused a fatality. PMA in pills is often sold as ecstasy which lead buyers to believe that they are actually taking MDMA and consume the same amount as they would normally with MDMA. However, PMA takes a lot longer to breach your system, therefore leading to people consuming more than one pill, as they feel like they haven’t had enough. However in most cases this is a fatal dosage of the drug.

This is why events like raves are being forced underground as clubs will not risk their reputation being dented due to a drug scandal, which is understandable but also encourages enthusiasts of the different music genres from the underground to go looking for somewhere to display their culture. Obviously ‘ravers’ could just conform with the rest of society but feel that the clubs have become too sanitised and that they cannot express themselves entirely. This is what leads to the search for an illegal rave, organisers of these events have great knowledge on UK squatting laws and legislations which help them to find the perfect venue and how to avoid being shut down.

Live music events including DJ sets, band concerts or gigs and festivals are all surrounded by drugs, whilst the majority of the crowd is made up of supporters of the specific acts that are performing, there is also a selection of high chasers who use these events as an excuse to cut loose. These live music events are stuck with this stigma that everyone is there to take drugs and that the music is not the sole reason to attend the event. But why do so many of us pay ludicrous prices to watch our favourite artists or DJs if we are only there to take drugs, potentially resulting in us forgetting the music involved in the event.

I met with Charlie Gould and Andy Dymond-Park who form tech house DJ duo ‘Dymonds & Gould’. I asked them some questions on what they think on how their events are easily stereotyped with everyone dropping pills and snorting powders. I also asked them if they are against this behaviour or if they are happy as long as their audience are enjoying themselves.

As discussed in the video with Gould and Dymond-Park an interesting system has been adopted by clubs in Switzerland where you can drop your pill(s) off on a Wednesday, then by the Friday your results are ready to be collected alongside your illicit drugs that you came with.This sort of action has occurred because a key part of the Swiss national drug policy is harm reduction and if their drug related death figures are anything to go by then it has been a major success. Switzerland have had half as many drug related deaths compared to the UKs massive 4,000 figure which makes you question why our government haven’t adopted this system especially seeing as that as a country we consume the most legal and illegal substances.

The summer of 2016 saw pill testing touch soil for the first time at two separate festivals in the UK, secret garden party and Kendall calling both introduced ‘Front of house testing’ which was powered by The Loop a community interest company. The process is simple, if you have come across drugs one way or another and you are not sure on how strong it is, or what it actually is then you can take it to a specialist who will test your narcotics and give you all the information you need to know. There has been strong arguments on either side of this debate with campaigners for the testing saying that this service could save lives and if people knew what they were about to take it would help them regulate the amount or stop them altogether. With the opposing side saying that it just encourages the use of illegal drugs as consumers think it is safe, as no matter what is actually in their drugs it could still have a negative effect on them individually.

DJ B. Traits of Radio 1 said in a recent interview with Newsbeat that:

“It’s a very, very good thing. It’s a big deal and a massive step in the right direction. We have to acknowledge that young people are going to constantly experiment with drugs. The more we try to brush it to one side, the more it’s going to happen and the more bad things are going to happen.”

She also added that:

“We want to get young people talking about it more and considering it and if they are going to do drugs, doing it in a safer way. No-one knows how you’re going to react to it and it’s a massive risk that you are going to take.”

Before this party goers would use a website called ‘Pill report’ which breaks down every type of pill and even tells you if there has been any fatalities related to that particular pill type. The only down-side to this method is that you can never be sure of what you have been sold actually contains what it should, as i mentioned prior dealers and manufactures often cut their substances with different agents some of which can be very harmful if consumed in bulk amounts.

Ecstasy accompanies many dance music types, due to the happy and eutrophic effects of the drug complimenting the sounds of heavy and repetitive beats, this partnership can also be identified by the high serotonin levels that MDMA releases in to its users systems. This effect on a consumer will make them crave dance music events due to the light show and community environment that comes with the fast paced music. This euphoric feeling is what many young people seek, alongside dance music ecstasy can be truly mind-altering.

Could the government not look into making these substances legal? By doing so they could control the quantity for individuals and give advice to the people who are buying and consuming the substances.

Andy Dymond-Park on the decks.

One of the most important links between music and drugs are the artists that sing or make the music. Artists are the direct communication between music and people, how they portray themselves and how they portray narcotics will be passed on to the listener through songs or beats. This is evident throughout all music genres and top selling artists often refer to drugs in their songs, cannabis being the most mentioned drug in music due to the heavy link with hip-hop.

Drug usage by musicians has been a major topic of discussion since the 1930s when many Jazz and Swing artists were open about their Cannabis usage whilst also mentioning their times on the drug in their lyrics, which appears to be the first real mention of drug usage in music, leading the way for artists to follow in the future.

Rappers are constantly referring ‘weed’, ‘skunk’, ‘green’ and many other slang references made to the ‘ganja’. Cannabis is evidently related to another music genre as well with many reggae icons such as Bob Marley advocating for the drug to be governed as legal, who was endlessly quoted throughout his life positively portraying cannabis use. Dr. Dre even named his top-selling album ‘Chronic’ which is yet another slang term for Cannabis.

The musicians that mention these drugs in a positive manner in their songs are sending a message to their supporters and listeners that smoking cannabis is perhaps a cool thing to do. A great example of this would be when Snoop Dogg, who is also very open about his cannabis usage in his songs and in various different interviews, performs at live events such as festivals and concerts. When his infamous song ‘Next episode’ is performed he invites the crowd to light up their ‘spliffs’ or ‘joints’ and smoke ‘the devils lettuce’ with their favourite hip-hop artist. This is one way that the music is directly linked to drug usage, that the artist has openly invited his listeners to join him in his euphoric up high state. Encouraging the use of cannabis.

Figure 3 & 4. Survey data compared and illustrated through infographics.

The survey questions that were answered above supports the theory of Cannabis being a drug that you consume at home due to the effect it has on your body, whereas Cocaine is the highest consumed drug at nightclubs according to my results. Anonymous surveys are the most accurate way to collect data, however, it is a great way to voice the opinion of an uncontrolled group of individuals.

Since 1988 cannabis and cocaine have dominated the hit counter with endless references throughout many different music genres, however, more recently one of the most mentioned drugs in hip-hop has been MDMA with rappers also referring to ecstasy directly or again through slang references such as ‘Molly’. More interestingly Hip-hop star Future sang in a recent track called ‘Mask off’:

Pink Molly, i can barely move”

The reference to pink molly may appear harmless however this is what the fatal PMA is often confused with due to the colour of the drug. With artists openly referring to drugs such as this we could see an influx in young people searching for pink molly and instead finding PMA which could cause more and more fatalities. Another factor that is inconclusive is how musicians are able to be such poor role models and openly talk about drug usage when listeners of their music are going to be easily impressionable, an argument against this would be that the music is labelled as explicit and minors should not being listening to said music. The opposing argument however is that with great thanks to modern technology it is relatively easy for children and teenagers to navigate the web and find songs that refer to such drugs.

Another narcotic trait that Hip-hop artists have referred to is the abuse of pharmaceutical drugs such as Morphine, Codeine and Oxycodone. Eminem frequently refers to his personal abuse of said painkillers and one lyric reads “Pop a Xanax, relax”. Lil B has made the most references to Cocaine, MDMA and codeine than any other artist with many explicit lyrics describing his time on said drugs. Jay Z also sang in his chart topping track with Alicia Keys ‘Empire state of mind’:

MDMA got you feeling like a champion, the city never sleeps better slip you an Ambien

The references to drugs in song lyrics is a number that is daily growing with many musicians mentioning different types of drugs, the effect that these mentions have on society is too difficult to be monitored and you cannot blame drug related deaths on these musicians. However, if more artists negatively portrayed drugs would their supporters opinion of these illegal substances follow suit?

Many artists are openly honest with the drugs they have abused in the past, Miley Cyrus, daughter of Billy-Ray and former star of Disney’s ‘Hannah Montana’ followed the path of many child stars before her, when she rebelled from her position as a role model and turned to Cocaine and MDMA. The derailing of her personality was evident in the music she was producing and how she was acting in the public eye and music videos. Cyrus who at the time of this rebellion had a mass young following would have left an impression on her fans who some of which may have gone down the same path of drug use.

For some artists drugs have been the end to all endeavours with many musicians dying because of their various different drug abuses, Elvis Presley famously died on the toilet after taking a lethal cocktail containing a whole concoction of legal and illegal substances. While most musicians have died from taking drugs that you wouldn’t always find at a concert such as Heroin, they have usually been abusing a medley of drug types and that is how the fatality occurs. From using drugs like cocaine that effects your body and mind into thinking you are high and to counter that feeling taking drugs like Heroin that relax the body and act as more of a downer.

A study in Glasgow saw that 59% of ecstasy users last consumed the drug whilst on a night out whereas only 3% of Heroin users said they had taken the downer on a night out, a figure that represents the effects of the two countering drugs as both deliver different feeling and emotions to its consumers.

The reasoning behind the Glaswegian study could be that drug users find it more convenient to take ecstasy whilst on a night out rather than other substances as it is abundantly quicker and discrete it to swallow a pill, in comparison to injecting or sniffing a substance. This is also the reasoning behind the fact festivals are associated with ‘popping pill’s’ as due to the high security, the drug users find it much easier to hide pills rather than hiding needles. Again festival users find it much more discrete to take pills without anyone even realising until it is too late and they are on their way to cloud nine.

Alongside mud, camping and live loud music, drugs are commonly known to appear at festivals all over the UK and abroad. As mentioned previously, many artists are happy to express their love for drugs in and out of music which could have a knock-on effect on those listening to it. This again is a huge factor as to why so many festival goers feel that when attending these events, drugs are essential for having a good time, but is it really essential? Is there too much pressure on young adults at these events as they are desperate to seek their peers respect.

A popular alternative festival trend that is forming around the globe doesn’t involve getting high from substances, but instead getting high on life. Buddhafield festival is a drink free, drug free festival founded in 1992 in rural Somerset. Unlike other popular festivals, these straight edge festivals are filled with festival goers who are content on listening to the live music substance free. It takes place over 5 days involving yoga classes and permaculture workshops. The festival goers aren’t interested in substances and express the phrase ‘we must love each other or we die’.

Although this festival consists of just over 1,500 individuals it is dwarfed in size and reputation compared to festivals such as Glastonbury which accommodates to over 175,000 people, is this because of the stature of the acts or that drug usage is prominent at the Worthy Farm festival and entices people from all over the world as you can cut loose. Although, it could be because festivals like Buddhafield aren’t advertised to the extremity of Glastonbury and other music festivals in the UK. Again is the reasoning for less advertising because we know it’s a fact that drink and drugs are enjoyed in a festival setting and are associated with various different genres of music?

Music festivals are known to have high level security measurements in place, but how can this be? Security measurements are in place to prevent illegal and dangerous substances from being brought and used inside the festival perimeter. They involve bag checks and although the checks can be thorough, drug users and drug dealers are still finding ways to sneak in their substances, whether this be by concealing them internally or by using old techniques such as strapping. With thousands of people attending each festival, festivals do not have the time nor resources to make sure the security guards are checking well enough to prevent illicit drugs from breaching the gates of the event. As once the drugs are inside the enclosure the dealing commences and the drugs spread rapidly.   

There are many side effects that come with drug usage that are visible to level-headed observers that conclude that an individual has taken a substance, this includes the relaxation of muscles in the body, causing the jaw to ‘gurn’. Gurning is visible for others to see, so why aren’t the festival security teams searching the individuals gurning to see if they have any drugs on their person? Or would this just prove that dealers really do not get ‘high on their own supply’ and dealers are inconspicuous at best.

Once security have done their jobs poorly at the entrance of checking for drugs do they turn a blind eye once the festival is under way? This again can be a factor as to why the levels of drug usage is so high at music festivals. Do the festival organisers need to invest in more drug checks frequently throughout these music festivals, such as tent raids, to discourage drug dealers from setting up businesses?

Throughout the decades, music and drugs have been closely associated as a pair. From singing and rapping about different substances and the effects, to physically taking them. Although there is many different forms of advertising trying to prevent drug usage and raising awareness of the negative effects involved with drug taking. Drugs and music will always be a challenge when it comes to breaking the habit. In the near future will there be new laws and legislation in place to prevent drug usage whilst attending music events? As death tolls continue to rise at the hands of drugs some method of action needs to be taken before the drug crisis becomes a pandemic. 

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