English
Research Paper
3/16/97 Drugs in
the musicIndustryTheMusic World-glamorous, fast paced, and a world
most of us will never be part of. But if we knew what it entailed, would we
still want to be? The whole world seems to be building itself around
drugs more and more every day, and musicindustry isn't immune. In
fact, music is one of the most influential art forms of today's society, and
drugs, especially to today's youth, just add to the attractiveness of it all.
In the last two or three years, drugs, especially heroin, have risen in use
dramatically. Kurt Cobain was the most high-profile drug-related rock star
since the 1970's and was still battling heroin addiction when he
committed suicide in 1994. Along with him, his wife Courtney Love made
it fashionable to be a "junkie". Inthe last year, Stone Temple Pilot's
singer Scott Weiland and Depeche Mode singer David Gahan, among
others, have been arrested for cocaine or heroin possession. The number
of top bands that have been linked to heroin through a member's
overdose, arrest, admitted use or recovery is staggering: Smashing
pumpkins, Everclear, Snoop Doggy Dogg, Dr. Dre, Blind Melon, Red Hot
Chili Peppers, The Breeders, Alice in Chains, Sex Pistols, Sublime, Iggy
Pop, the list goes on
Mcguire 2and on. Together, these bands have sold more than 60
million albums(Newsweek pgs 50 & 53). Since kids emulate
popular musicians, what is there to keep them from emulating their drug
use? Moreover, what's to keep the majority of the population from doing
the same? Inthe 60's and 70's, drug use was never spoken of nor did
anyone admit that it was a problem. Nowadays, there is not a person in
the world who hasn't heard about the rising drug use. But what are they
doing about it? Back inthe 80's, higher prices, the fear of contracting
AIDS, and lower purity kept drugs out of the mainstream. Now, drugs are
cheaper and easier to get then ever, being imported into the country at
double the rate it was inthe 1980's. Unfortunately, the outsider's view of
drug use isn't the harsh reality. Janis Joplin, Billie Holiday, and Charlie
Parker are among the many to die from heroin and other drug addictions.
Drugs seem to make you a funnier, wiser, cooler person, but what the
younger generation fails to realize is that they are fatal. Despite this,
drug use continues to soar. People mistakenly think that drugs, if taken a
certain way, aren't addictive, when even marijuana, thought to be a
harmless "high", has been found addictive. The fear is that
drug use is becoming another trend. The streets of Seattle are cluttered
with young people who have moved there just to do heroin just like Kurt
Cobain did-all this at a time when the people inthe Seattle music scene
claim that drug use among musicians is tapering off (Newsweek p 54).
McGuire 3
Smashing Pumpkins fired drummer Jimmy Chamberlin after finding that
he was addicted to heroin along with late keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin.
This was definitely a step inthe right direction, although they may have
done it for the public acclaim. But will other bands follow? If they did,
there wouldn't be any musicians left. Nonetheless, the Smashing
Pumpkins didn't lose their place on the top ten charts. They didn't get
pushed into the trash pile, and if they survived, who's to say that no one
else will? People speculate that the pressures of success put a strain
on musician's lives and push them to use drugs to feel better about
themselves, but they're not really very different from normal people.
Musicians are just common people who play music. Drug addicts are all
people, and names don't matter. Contrary to popular belief, musicians
aren't royalty to be worshipped and looked up to. They breathe in and out
just as normal human beings and have no more reason to give into the
temptation of drug use than we do. The natural tendency for people
is to be accepted and to feel wanted. We take risks just to look better
and more courageous than our peers because we're competing for
popularity due to their own insecurities. The younger generation is the
most impressionable of today's world, and they do what they see as
fashionable and "in". This doesn't mean that adults don't join in on this
competition. Each person's job or company has to be bigger and better
than the next.
McGuire 4The Partnership for a Drug-Free America, best known for it's
commercials on television, now worries that heroin will be the drug of the
90's, and that musicians, as well as movie stars, are helping to make it
so. Earlier this summer, the organization aired another shocking
commercial. Showing images of junkie music celebrities and anecdotes
about middle-class drug use, this was the most expensive campaign ever
against drug use. Is this getting the attention that it deserves? Sadly,
people still continue doing drugs. What makes drug use so
popular? Is it the fact that people have found a way to escape their
problems, or that everywhere you look someone famous is doing it. If
people took the time to ask about the effects that drug use has after
being used continuously for log periods of time, they would find that it isn't
all it's cracked up to be. Dave Navarro, guitarist for the Red Hot Chili
Peppers, said that he started doing drugs at the age of 15 to relive his
pressures after his mother died. Now a recovered addict, he says that
heroin ruined his dreams and turned his career from the thing he wanted
most into the thing he wanted to get away from (Newsweek p 65).
Many think that the lives of musicians are easy because they are
wealthy, popular, and sublimely happy. Being rich and famous isn't all
it's cracked up to be. They lead normal lives, have kids and pay bills just
as we do, but this is still no excuse to put your life into your own hands.
McGuire 5
The musicindustry may be finally facing up to the truth that drug abuse
has become a serious problem, though. The National Academy of
Recording Arts and Sciences gathered in 1996 to discuss what could be
done about it. The sense of crisis has been growing since Kurt Cobain
committed suicide, blamed at least partly on his heroin abuse.(Time
p57)Expressions of concern are easy to come by, but the chances for
meaningful industry action are less clear. Record executives refuse to
be drug police, especially in a society where drug abuse has long been
accepted, and even condoned, as part of the creative process.
Geffen Records has retained a drug counselor for it's musicians who seek
help. (Time p 58). But theindustry must recognize that pressure from
the label to keep tutoring and recording can blow a drug problem out of
proportion. It is a minimal step, but at least a start toward trying to keep
musicians healthy, productive, and alive.
English
Research Paper
3/16/97 Drugs in
the musicIndustryTheMusic World-glamorous, fast paced, and a world
most of us will never be part of. But if we knew what it entailed, would we
still want to be? The whole world seems to be building itself around
drugs more and more every day, and musicindustry isn't immune. In
fact, music is one of the most influential art forms of today's society, and
drugs, especially to today's youth, just add to the attractiveness of it all.
In the last two or three years, drugs, especially heroin, have risen in use
dramatically. Kurt Cobain was the most high-profile drug-related rock star
since the 1970's and was still battling heroin addiction when he
committed suicide in 1994. Along with him, his wife Courtney Love made
it fashionable to be a "junkie". Inthe last year, Stone Temple Pilot's
singer Scott Weiland and Depeche Mode singer David Gahan, among
others, have been arrested for cocaine or heroin possession. The number
of top bands that have been linked to heroin through a member's
overdose, arrest, admitted use or recovery is staggering: Smashing
pumpkins, Everclear, Snoop Doggy Dogg, Dr. Dre, Blind Melon, Red Hot
Chili Peppers, The Breeders, Alice in Chains, Sex Pistols, Sublime, Iggy
Pop, the list goes on
Mcguire 2and on. Together, these bands have sold more than 60
million albums(Newsweek pgs 50 & 53). Since kids emulate
popular musicians, what is there to keep them from emulating their drug
use? Moreover, what's to keep the majority of the population from doing
the same? Inthe 60's and 70's, drug use was never spoken of nor did
anyone admit that it was a problem. Nowadays, there is not a person in
the world who hasn't heard about the rising drug use. But what are they
doing about it? Back inthe 80's, higher prices, the fear of contracting
AIDS, and lower purity kept drugs out of the mainstream. Now, drugs are
cheaper and easier to get then ever, being imported into the country at
double the rate it was inthe 1980's. Unfortunately, the outsider's view of
drug use isn't the harsh reality. Janis Joplin, Billie Holiday, and Charlie
Parker are among the many to die from heroin and other drug addictions.
Drugs seem to make you a funnier, wiser, cooler person, but what the
younger generation fails to realize is that they are fatal. Despite this,
drug use continues to soar. People mistakenly think that drugs, if taken a
certain way, aren't addictive, when even marijuana, thought to be a
harmless "high", has been found addictive. The fear is that
drug use is becoming another trend. The streets of Seattle are cluttered
with young people who have moved there just to do heroin just like Kurt
Cobain did-all this at a time when the people inthe Seattle music scene
claim that drug use among musicians is tapering off (Newsweek p 54).
McGuire 3
Smashing Pumpkins fired drummer Jimmy Chamberlin after finding that
he was addicted to heroin along with late keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin.
This was definitely a step inthe right direction, although they may have
done it for the public acclaim. But will other bands follow? If they did,
there wouldn't be any musicians left. Nonetheless, the Smashing
Pumpkins didn't lose their place on the top ten charts. They didn't get
pushed into the trash pile, and if they survived, who's to say that no one
else will? People speculate that the pressures of success put a strain
on musician's lives and push them to use drugs to feel better about
themselves, but they're not really very different from normal people.
Musicians are just common people who play music. Drug addicts are all
people, and names don't matter. Contrary to popular belief, musicians
aren't royalty to be worshipped and looked up to. They breathe in and out
just as normal human beings and have no more reason to give into the
temptation of drug use than we do. The natural tendency for people
is to be accepted and to feel wanted. We take risks just to look better
and more courageous than our peers because we're competing for
popularity due to their own insecurities. The younger generation is the
most impressionable of today's world, and they do what they see as
fashionable and "in". This doesn't mean that adults don't join in on this
competition. Each person's job or company has to be bigger and better
than the next.
McGuire 4The Partnership for a Drug-Free America, best known for it's
commercials on television, now worries that heroin will be the drug of the
90's, and that musicians, as well as movie stars, are helping to make it
so. Earlier this summer, the organization aired another shocking
commercial. Showing images of junkie music celebrities and anecdotes
about middle-class drug use, this was the most expensive campaign ever
against drug use. Is this getting the attention that it deserves? Sadly,
people still continue doing drugs. What makes drug use so
popular? Is it the fact that people have found a way to escape their
problems, or that everywhere you look someone famous is doing it. If
people took the time to ask about the effects that drug use has after
being used continuously for log periods of time, they would find that it isn't
all it's cracked up to be. Dave Navarro, guitarist for the Red Hot Chili
Peppers, said that he started doing drugs at the age of 15 to relive his
pressures after his mother died. Now a recovered addict, he says that
heroin ruined his dreams and turned his career from the thing he wanted
most into the thing he wanted to get away from (Newsweek p 65).
Many think that the lives of musicians are easy because they are
wealthy, popular, and sublimely happy. Being rich and famous isn't all
it's cracked up to be. They lead normal lives, have kids and pay bills just
as we do, but this is still no excuse to put your life into your own hands.
McGuire 5
The musicindustry may be finally facing up to the truth that drug abuse
has become a serious problem, though. The National Academy of
Recording Arts and Sciences gathered in 1996 to discuss what could be
done about it. The sense of crisis has been growing since Kurt Cobain
committed suicide, blamed at least partly on his heroin abuse.(Time
p57)Expressions of concern are easy to come by, but the chances for
meaningful industry action are less clear. Record executives refuse to
be drug police, especially in a society where drug abuse has long been
accepted, and even condoned, as part of the creative process.
Geffen Records has retained a drug counselor for it's musicians who seek
help. (Time p 58). But theindustry must recognize that pressure from
the label to keep tutoring and recording can blow a drug problem out of
proportion. It is a minimal step, but at least a start toward trying to keep
musicians healthy, productive, and alive.
. did, there wouldn't be any musicians left. Nonetheless, the Smashing Pumpkins didn't lose their place on the top ten charts. They didn't get pushed into the trash pile, and if they. did, there wouldn't be any musicians left. Nonetheless, the Smashing Pumpkins didn't lose their place on the top ten charts. They didn't get pushed into the trash pile, and if they. kept drugs out of the mainstream. Now, drugs are cheaper and easier to get then ever, being imported into the country at double the rate it was in the 1980's. Unfortunately, the outsider's