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Drugs are so popular with teenagers because they are easy bait. One reason is because drugs are constantly promoted through their magazines, books, friends, movies, role models, and music. For example, listen to some of the names of songs that have been written over the years; “Get Off My Cloud,” “Straight Shooter,” “Acapulco Gold,” “A Little Help From My Friends,” “Along Came Mary,” “Blue Cheer,” “Crystal Blue Persuasion,” “Colored Rain,” “Faster Than The Speed Of Light,” “Penny Lane,” “Yellow Submarine,” “Rainy Day Woman,” "Hesitation Blues," "Somebody to Love," "Eight Miles High," "Good Vibrations,” "Reflections,” "Tomorrow Never Knows," "Paint It, Black,” "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," “You Turn Me On,” “You’ve Got Me High,” and “White Rabbit.”
Today’s music is much worse than the music in the old days. On February 4, 2008 a medical research team reviewed 279 top songs of 2005, to determine how common the lyrics about drugs, alcohol, and tobacco are used in the songs. The report showed that one in every three songs contained explicit references to drugs. The report also showed that two-thirds of the songs placed drugs, alcohol and tobacco in a positive light by associating them with sex, partying and humor. The team’s leader Dr. Brian Primack said that they figured that if teenagers from the ages of 15-18 listen to 2.4 hours of music daily, they would hear 84 references to drugs, alcohol and tobacco referred to, in a positive way. That’s more than 30,000 a year. No wonder our teenagers in America are turning to drugs to cure the pain in their lives. The researchers said that the evidence shows us that the greater the exposure to certain media messages can increase substance use among teens.
Another interesting bit of information from the medical research team that I thought was interesting was this; different types of music are worse than others that contained more references than others. The number one was no surprise to me, Rap, but the second one was, Country. Good old Country music had far more references to drug, alcohol and tobacco usage in a positive way that even rock music and pop.
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