Study: Country Music Now Mentions Drugs More Than Any Other Genre
Whether you consider it country music getting more cool, or country music losing its historic hold on the squeaky-clean, family-friendly spot on the radio dial, popular country music songs now carry more references to drugs than the lyrics of any other major American genre, even more than rap, and even more than the drug-crazed EDM world.
This is according to a study conducted by Addictions.com using a song meanings API, or “application program interface” to analyze the meanings and lyrical content of songs. According to the study, country songs include drug references 1.6% of the time, which is more than jazz, pop, electronic, rock, other, folk and rap. Marijuana is the most common drug referenced, but not the only one. 30% of the drug references were for marijuana. Cocaine followed with 22 percent, with smaller doses of acid, pills, methamphetamines, heroin and ecstasy also getting mentions.
This study turns the idea that country music is the most values-based major American genre on its head. It also exonerates rap as the genre with the least family-friendly lyrics since it came in last in the study for the frequency of drug references.
“If you ask the casual music fan which genres are more likely to bring up recreational substance use, hip-hop or contemporary electronic music are likely to be the most common answers,” the study says. “But according to our research, both of these styles are relatively tame. Out of eight categories, country leads the way … Hip-hop actually falls in last place at less than 1.3 percent behind folk, challenging the assumption that all rappers are lyrical drug peddlers.”
Though the study doesn’t directly link drug references with drug use, it does fly against the conventional wisdom that country music is a safe place for all listeners. The study is offered to be helpful information for families, and for recovering addicts who may be looking to avoid drug references in music.
“I think there was a huge drug culture in the 90’s that was blossoming into rap music that simply isn’t as big as it once was,” says Logan Freedman, who is a data scientist at Addictions.com. “It’s really amazing, I think because marijuana has become more normalized in our culture, a lot of country artists are signing about it more often than ever.”
This also leads to the question if marijuana as a “drug” should be as alarming as cocaine, for example. State referendums across the country have made marijuana legal in some places, legal for medicinal purposes in others, and decriminalized its use in many more. Also, a song could reference drugs, but could do so in a cautionary tale as opposed to condoning its use, i.e. numerous songs from Johnny Cash, Johnny Paycheck, and others from country music’s past.
Nonetheless, the study is another sign that the values of country music are shifting, and not necessarily in a positive direction for all listeners.
Megan
April 26, 2017 @ 8:14 am
I think the more interesting part of this is that rap refers to drugs less…as you mentioned, country might not always refer to drugs in a condoning manner…nor might any genre for that matter, but country is supposed to be real, and as it mentioned, drugs have become more normalized, so in a way it makes sense that these references would increase in country.
Michigander
April 26, 2017 @ 8:14 am
I’d say the “family friendly” sound of country radio has been dead long before this graphic. The amount of “date-rapey” songs that make it to number one hits really creeps me out. Higher rates of drug references is just another drop in the bucket.
shastacatfish
April 26, 2017 @ 9:02 am
I would say that if anything killed the “family friendly” side of country, it was the mom-country of the Aughts. It was so saccharine-sweet that is was nauseating, and that’s coming from a conservative family-values type like myself. I first starting listening to country early on during that time and it nearly put me off the music just as I was getting started. Songs like Rodney Atkins’ “Watching You” were the worst offenders. If anything, I think the bro/metro country we are plagued with now was a (over)reaction to all that namby-pamby music that dominated back then.
Michigander
April 26, 2017 @ 9:06 am
I agree with you there, my local station still plays “Mr. Mom” regularly. I can see how bro country began as an overcorrection.
shastacatfish
April 26, 2017 @ 9:10 am
That song was my runner up for an example of how awful that all was. Those two really go toe-toe in awfulness.
CountryKnight
April 27, 2017 @ 7:21 pm
“Mr. Mom” was a fun song with a story and character arc. It rang true to a lot of lives for country music fans. After all, country music is three chords and the truth.
Michigander
April 27, 2017 @ 7:40 pm
You’re right, I enjoyed it in 2004, and out of context maybe someone else might still enjoy it today. Now it is 2017, and If I have to hear that line about Barney again I’ll tear my hair out.
The point is that it was a castrated version of what country music was to appeal to the largest common denomitator. Different side of the same coin that contains bro country.
I DO love a song that has a good message, but at some point it turns into meaningless corporate pandering. At the end of the day any “truth” a song like Mr. Mom gets at is only a mere byproduct of the original purpose. The main purpose being cash cash money baby.
Nick Brown
April 28, 2017 @ 9:24 am
Oh God, “Mr.Mom”. I wish I could have my memory wiped clean of that horrible song. I can stand that Cruise song more than Mr.Mom.
I can’t forget how much CMT played that awful song, just about every hour and a half it was on.
Adrian
April 26, 2017 @ 11:31 pm
I agree, Mr. Mom was a terrible song. It portrayed the feminization of sensitive males that was oh so fashionable starting in the 1990s.
But by “mom country”, were you mainly referring to sensitive male songs (e.g. “Mr. Mom”, “Tonight I Wanna Cry”, Keith Urban), or to songs by female artists that appealed to suburban mothers (e.g. most of the music of Martina McBride and Sara Evans in the 2000s? As a country listener who is not and will never be a mom, I thought the first category was much worse than the second. I’d consider both categories of songs to be part of “mom country”, with Lee Ann Womack’s “I Hope You Dance” standing out as the first “mom country” song of the 2000’s.
I think of “mom country” listeners as falling into two main categories, one consisting of the more rural and traditionalist women who also listened to neo-traditional country (e.g. Alan Jackson, George Strait) and mainstream suburban women who were primarily AC radio/soft pop listeners.
FreeTicketGal
April 27, 2017 @ 5:07 pm
Did you notice how Mr Mom actually made a point of showing that such femininization of males did /not/ work as the guy in the song could not hold a candle to the actual mom when it came to being successsful at what she did? I guess maybe not.
I have tried for the longest time to look at country through the eyes of the traditionalists because at no point have I truly disagreed with them. I do feel, however, that comments like these are dividing. Now you may very well find me oversensitive but I happen to be one of those “mainstream suburban women who were primarily AC radio/soft pop listeners”, and I think you speak of us as if we are below you. You may want to consider that a lot of people like me did not stop at the “mom country” songs but educated ourselves (read, listened and attended traditional country concerts) so that we could share the joy of music with you traditionalists. I still enjoy some of my “mom country” though (Mr Mom was hardly Lonestar’s most glorious moment) along with the older stuff. I just think I’d better be doing it without coming to this site.
Adrian
April 27, 2017 @ 11:31 pm
Yup, you do sound like a mom country fan. I’m guessing that the prototypical mom country fan is a married white woman in her 30s, with two children in elementary school. She lives in a 4 bedroom tract house with a white picket fence on a woodsy half acre in a suburban neighborhood about 10 miles from downtown, and thinks of it as sort of, kind of, the countryside. She drives a crossover SUV and regularly watches Good Morning America and the Oprah show. She attends church occasionally, worries a little when she sees a racy photo of Miley Cyrus, and sorta kinda thinks her little girl should be more like Taylor Swift. “Mom country” provides some soothing, easy listening to make the boring chores and errands go by more quickly. She thinks Brad Paisley is hot. She loves her husband more often than not, but nags him about his imperfections and daydreams about a world in which he could be more perfect, like Tim McGraw. She craves some romance and listens to songs by sensitive guys like Keith Urban, who she adores because he’s kind of a pretty boy and she thinks his Aussie accent is cute. In her younger days she cheered for her high school and attended a state university where she studied psychology, belong to a sorority, and went to lots of tailgate parties. When she settled down about 10 years ago and had kids, she started listening to pop country stations. She still tunes in once a while, but often switches her car radio to the AC station. And yeah she thinks she’s a country gal.
Does this sound like you?
shastacatfish
April 28, 2017 @ 7:35 am
Adrian, I think what you say here is pretty harsh and unnecessarily so. You have made some astute observations about music in other comments but your obvious contempt here is quite out of place and out of line.
There are many people who may fit the description you wrote but does that make them any less valued as people or their lives less worth living? Instead you have devalued them. It is important to draw a distinction between the world of music and the lives that people actually live. I am adamantly opposed to “mom country” and all that it entails but that does not mean I am adamantly opposed to the demographic that made it popular. There is a difference.
Show a little grace.
Adrian
April 29, 2017 @ 10:40 am
Ok, I can partly see your point, in the sense that I have not met FreeTicketGal and I don’t know everything about her, so perhaps I should not jump to conclusions.
But I don’t think describing a profile of a typical fan of a sub genre of music is devaluing people. Trigger already made many of the same points in his profile of the archetypical “bored suburban soccer mom” a few years ago. I wasn’t the first to try to describe her and frankly what I wrote in the comment wasn’t much more original than a Lonestar song or even a Kelsea Ballerini song, so you don’t need to give me too much credit.
I do know that many companies do define profiles of their target customer, that they then use for the purpose of designing marketing campaigns. The profiles they come up with often seem very stereotypical. But until it becomes economical to deliver a different customized product for every individual consumer, businesses (probably including some record labels on Music Row) will continue to think in terms of the stereotypical customer. And by the way I don’t think describing a typical fan as a married white woman in her 30s with two kids is denigrating or devaluing her.
CountryKnight
April 27, 2017 @ 7:19 pm
“Watching You” is a great song with a great lesson.
Seriously, the complaining about those types of songs is why we got Bro-Country​.
shastacatfish
April 28, 2017 @ 7:21 am
I am not sure I follow. How does pointing out a bad song (especially in retrospect) get us bro-country? If something is not good, it is just not good. I concur that the message in those songs is good. That is not the point. It is the songs themselves that are bad. They have awful lyrics like this:
With a happy meal in his booster seat
Knowing that he couldn’t have the toy
Till his nuggets were gone
or this:
Pampers melt in a Maytag dryer
Crayons go up one drawer higher
Rewind Barney for the fifteenth time
That is just not country. That is suburbia. Now there is nothing wrong with the ‘burbs and it is certainly within reason that a country song can take place in the suburbs. People who live there can obviously like country music. However, I think songs like that have burrowed so deep into suburban culture that they cut ties to country music. Could you see Merle, Waylon, George,Hank Jr. or Loretta sing lyrics like that? How about next generation of artists like Randy Travis, Clint Black, Brooks & Dunn or Reba? Perhaps Dwight Yoakam could do something with it but that is because he is the master at covering non-country songs.
So aside, from the lyrics, that songs are, in my opinion slick and way over-produced (especially Mr. Mom). Good message, but the songs just aren’t good. They were targeted to s specific audience (not necessarily the historic core of the country audience) at a time when such things dominated the radio because a new audience bought in and bought them. As noted, follow the money. I think songs like that alienated a lot of people and that dissatisfaction opened the door for the Bros, who slammed it wide open and here we are today. Sure, other factors brought us to where country is today, like Taylor Swift, Kenny Chesney, Shania Twain and a whole host of things going on behind the scenes.
I could be wrong. It’s just my two cents.
CCRR
April 26, 2017 @ 8:15 am
Haha yeah marijuana is referenced a gang load in country music. I don’t even really consider that amongst “drugs” to be honest….but I know that’s up for debate. Just my outlook. I can’t say I’ve ever heard cocaine use condoned in a country song though…I could be wrong….normally it’s referenced in a negative light, a la “Cocaine Blues” or something along those lines (as you mentioned).
CCRR
April 26, 2017 @ 8:20 am
Also what time line are we talking here? If we are also analyzing songs way back from Cash/Haggard time period that debunks the theory that this study adds to the idea that country has declined as “family” listening in recent years….(sorry if I missing that piece, I don’t recall seeing it in the above article)
Trigger
April 26, 2017 @ 8:27 am
Yeah, the timeline of the study isn’t especially clear, but it does appear that it confirms that “drug” references in country are on a dramatic rise, while they’re falling in hip-hop. As the quote says in the article, I think a lot of folks got resigned to the idea that hip-hop was the home of drug references in music during the 90’s, but since then things have shifted. I think it just became passe or cliche to mention weed in your hip-hop song. I hear it all the time in modern pop country, and it always feels cliche to me. Mentioning pot in your songs is not revolutionary, it’s conformist. That’s probably why it’s so prevalent in pop country today.
CCRR
April 26, 2017 @ 8:34 am
I’m just always a tad suspicious of studies like this….as they can be tailored to reach specific results….interesting, nonetheless. Also, I really don’t hear a lot of marijuana/drug references on today’s country radio hits. To me it’s more prevalent in the music that’s a bit outside the mainstream box…but also, just my perspective, I could be off here…does the study say which songs/artists they used? I have to take a look. Now I’m curious.
Trigger
April 26, 2017 @ 9:43 am
I actually hear marijuana references in huge mainstream country hits all the time. I definitely think they’re on the rise. I was just listening to Jason Aldean’s “Any Ol’ Barstool” a couple of days ago and thinking, “Gee, a couple of years ago if you would have said, ‘I take a little more high in my smoke now’ it would have been a talking point,” like it was with Kacey Musgraves’ “Merry Go ‘Round.” Now, it just slides by, because it’s what you expect in a pop country song.
That’s why I also think one of the most uncool things you can do in music today is drop a pot reference. That’s probably why the hip-hop scene has moved on. Who wants to be compared to Jason Aldean?
CCRR
April 26, 2017 @ 9:32 am
Update: went to website for study….even less convinced of legitimacy of claims made….throw-away “study” in my opinion.
Jacob
April 26, 2017 @ 11:45 am
100% agree. This study is garbage. It’s intention was to be a shock piece.
And it’s just intuitively wrong for me. I listen to country and rap and if I pulled 10 mainstream of each, it wouldn’t even be close. Country references would also be way more subtle.
CCRR
April 26, 2017 @ 9:50 am
You know what’s funny? The Aldean song is edited on radio…I have never heard that line. I wonder how many others there are….any others? Now I’m curious how much of what I’m hearing has been censored….
Convict charlie
April 26, 2017 @ 10:11 am
Kid rock song that’s played on the radio semi often has a cocaine reference. It’s edited out though.
Big Red
April 26, 2017 @ 10:25 am
Heard the Aldean song here on a local station (Pittsburgh area) and it was *not* edited. I only know because I thought I caught it in the first chorus and listened for it in the second. I was maybe a little surprised by it, but then quickly realized that such references are more and more common.
J
April 30, 2017 @ 4:54 pm
Here in Indiana, almost all songs are edited on the radio, with that being the only one that is not. I was driving though Kansas and Missouri last summer, and was surprised that in the more conservative states none of the songs were edited, and I even heard songs about smoking dope that I have never heard on the radio out here in Indiana.
Lil Dale boring country music comentar of the yeer
April 26, 2017 @ 2:42 pm
I luv druggs and I luv cuntry music and I luv America but dont piss on my leg n tell me its raining trigg u no damm well evry rap song u ever hurd talks about smokin the pot n purple drank quit goin outta yur way to put down the hard wurkin fokes on music roe
Drew
April 26, 2017 @ 8:24 am
This is something I think about sometimes as well, I’m glad you included this. I think this study is misleading though. It paints the data with a broad brush in each genre. If you look further to see which Hip Hop artists, for example, were the biggest offenders, it is artists that are widely popular and have had significant success and radio play over the years. I did not see a single Country act on that list that sees much popularity at all among a wide range of listeners. If this is about making a genre “family friendly” or whatever I cannot see how Country is the biggest offender in terms of drugs. Perhaps in objectification of women… Interesting study nonetheless.
Bertox
April 26, 2017 @ 8:49 am
Roll me up and smoke me when I die â˜
D. Wayne
April 26, 2017 @ 8:58 am
In some ways I think this shows how in tune country music is with their audience. Recent Princeton studies show the devastation happening in white working communities. The drug epidemic is killing whites who lack college degrees at an alarming rate. I think of Jason Isbell’s song “Codeine” where he talks plainly about addiction. Jamey Johnson had a hit
Adrian
April 26, 2017 @ 11:19 pm
I agree, the lyrics are a symptom of the problems, not the root cause. Bro country reflects the condition of much of today’s young white lower income folks: broken families, diminishing job prospects, and seeking distraction through sex, alcohol, and drugs.
D.Wayne
April 27, 2017 @ 5:23 am
Adrian, I don’t listen to BroCountry so I can’t comment. The music I was thinking of is Elizabeth Cook Herion song, Cody Jinx ” David”
I think they accurately describe today’s pain.
D. Wayne
April 26, 2017 @ 9:03 am
Sorry I hit the wrong button wish I could edit. Anyway, I think more writers should focus on the devastation hitting their fans communities by way of opioids and unemployment. While I am in favor of weed being legalized I think the opioid epidemic should be written about if the artist want to reflect whats happening in the real world.
Stork
April 26, 2017 @ 9:06 am
Sturgill raised the average by 35 percent with one song lol
seak05
April 26, 2017 @ 9:07 am
I mean plenty of country music has never been family friendly. If you want family friendly, listen to radio disney or artists specifically targeting that demo.
But it’s also a reflection on who uses drugs, most drug use isn’t in cities and most drug users aren’t minorities.
Also really, marijuana doesn’t count, it’s legal in ever growing parts of the country anyways. People drinking isn’t “not family friendly” and neither is someone smoking a joint. I’d argue (& data backs me up) that cigarette smoking, which is often lauded in country music, is far more harmful then either alcohol or marijuana.
Trigger
April 26, 2017 @ 9:49 am
There has always been a darker side of country music, but those songs rarely made it into the mainstream. That is the difference now. If you specifically turn on the country station because your kids are in the car, you’re no longer creating a safe zone, you’re likely exposing them to things other genres might not.
I think that drug references in music can be a powerful thing. On a personal level, I tend to gravitate to songs with drug references, as long as they’re not just fluffy pot references in there to pander to an audience. But many of those songs are just not right for a young audience.
Seak05
April 26, 2017 @ 11:01 am
I don’t think I’ve noticed any of the darker/harder (more interesting) drug songs on country radio. Songs about marijuana don’t strike me as any less family friendly then songs about drinking. And drinking isn’t non family friendly – most pple will drink even with kids around.
Songs that make cigarette smoking sound cool, are far less family friendly (to me) then marijuana songs, & country radio has always had that.
Then again the entire idea of “family friendly” as pretending things don’t exist is sort of odd to me, my parents played oldies rock music in the car.
CountryCharm
April 26, 2017 @ 11:37 am
You bring up a good point about cigarette smoking. Miranda especially is pushing the smoking angle hard and even using it in promo material. Her boyfriend is a big smoker, she hides her habit pretty well but I wonder if the smoking angle is personal choice or is she getting some $$$?
CCRR
April 26, 2017 @ 11:41 am
Agree.
Also, drinking and marijuana are not new to country….like, at all.
I don’t really feel like any of the “more drugs in country” argument is very valid….at least not based on what I’ve read/heard thus far. I’m just not buying it.
Adrian
April 27, 2017 @ 9:08 am
I think of both mainstream country and the GOP as representing the various constituencies of white middle America, e.g.
Evangelicals => religious songs (e.g. “Three Wooden Crosses”, Randy Travis; “Long Black Train”, Josh Turner; “Something In the Water”, Carrie Underwood”
Tea Party/Freedom Caucus => western songs and survivalist songs (e.g. “Amarillo by Morning”, George Strait; “Beer For My Horses”, Toby Keith; “A Country Boy Can Survive”, Hank Jr)
Chamber of Commerce/moderate voters => mom country (e.g. “Mr Mom”, Lonestar; “Tonight I Wanna Cry”, Keith Urban; and most of Martina McBride’es stuff)
Military hawks => patriotic songs (e.g. “Courtesy of the Red White and Blue”, Toby Keith)
Largely missing from this list were the masses of downscale white guys who have been experiencing many of the economic and social problems that have affected flyover country over the past few decades. The influence of this constituency first surfaced in country music in the form of bro country around 2010, and in the GOP primary campaign in 2015 with the rise of Trump. Pop culture responded to this unfortunate trend a few years before politics did.
albert
April 26, 2017 @ 9:11 am
I’d be still more concerned about the objectification of women in country songs ( Maddie and Tae have it right ) than the drug references I’m hearing which seem few and far between relatively speaking . There’s WAY more non-country about the genre now that brings family values ( or lack there-of )into question ….graphic language , non-country narratives , instrumentation , poorly crafted songs with no substance , excessive drinking/partying , insincere performances and many other aspects we consider here regularly .. .
Tom
April 26, 2017 @ 9:13 am
Without any data, time frame, or information about how this study was conducted, it’s useless. Is this only in the past 5 years? Only including Top 40 songs? I believe country music has a lot of drug references relative to other genres, but having hip-hop/rap in last is absurd.
Even when you view the article from the studies website, the “Top Artists” for each drug were almost exclusively rap artists. I have no idea how they got the numbers that they are claiming.
Tom
April 26, 2017 @ 9:30 am
More on the “Top Artists” for each drug….
7 Drug Categories, 5 “Top Artists” for each
0/35 those artists are country artists
27/35 were hip-hop artists/groups
Granted, this doesn’t prove anything in terms of an entire genre for all drugs, but by their own research, it looks highly questionable that Rap mentions drug the least.
Trigger
April 26, 2017 @ 9:54 am
I totally agree that they need to release more information on how they came to their findings. That doesn’t mean their findings are wrong, but it makes it difficult to cross reference and verify without that information, or validate what they’re saying.
That said, one of their assertions is that hip-hop loaded up with drug references in the 90’s, has fallen off sharply since then while country’s drug references are on the rise. If that’s the case, which I think it probably is, that’s the reason you see that inconsistency between the artist with the most drug references vs. the genre with the most drug references today.
A.K.A. City
April 26, 2017 @ 9:16 am
What I am interested in is the context of these references. If it is the tired “love as a drug” metaphor that Trigger has written about before, I think most of us are over it. However, there is a large overlap with the country music demographic and those hit hardest by the opioid epidemic. In 2015, 1 out of 4 children born in my home of East Tennessee were born dependent on opioids. This is something that needs to be addressed and talked about more, imo. It has been going on for years but has only started to receive any sort of dialogue. Heck, I would be thrilled if for every fifty beer, tailgates, daisy dukes, and lakes song there was one song that addressed drug use in a real and somber manner.
Michigan Music
April 26, 2017 @ 9:19 am
Plus, as SCM has pointed out previously there are many country songs nowadays lazily doing the ‘your love is like a drug’ bit. That amps up the drug count in country songs I would imagine.
Clint
April 26, 2017 @ 9:24 am
There are so many things missing that this study is really worthless. Any study like this could match their hypothesis so it is very important to show your work, sources, etc. Not always an expert on Country Music but I am more of one of Data Visualization
jtrpdx
April 26, 2017 @ 9:42 am
This study is obviously flawed. How can Cypress Hill not be in the top 10 artists referencing drugs? Also, I think their analysis of Method Man / Wu Tang rapping about Meth is a little off. I know Method man has done some word play / breaking bad type references to Meth in recent years, but that is just a play on his name. He isn’t actually talking about or glorifying doing Meth.
Overall, what is any type of real music in modern days without some references to drugs here and there? They are part of life, especially the recreation & struggles of artists types and people who have made a life out of making musical art and have a story to tell about real life. Now, if Sesame Street starts having “F is for Free Base, kids!” featured on their shows, I would see how an article could be warranted (speaking of the original article, not Trigg linking to it, given that “country” was mentioned as the biggest “offender”).
Nadia Lockheart
April 26, 2017 @ 10:39 am
I listen to some mainstream rap and Rhythmic myself, and I’m inclined to agree with the overall conclusions being drawn.
Most of what radio rap constitutes lyrically and thematically as of late is 1) luxury porn (much like radio country in a different way), 2) asserting your lofty place on the totem pole of relevance and clout in the rap community, 3) inner-city conflicts while rarely delving into a broader sociological context and 4) bragging about your ability to pick up women and swap women. Drug references do come up, but they’re considerably outnumbered by references to alcohol brands (again, sound f***ing familiar?), other brand names like Tom Ford, Aston Martins and luxury cars, and concoctions like “Purple Drink”.
Kendrick Lamar’s continued success may help to demand more substance to the format, and there’s also a lot of compelling rap that doesn’t surface on the radio examining life in inner-cities comprehensively.
Whitebacon
April 26, 2017 @ 11:01 am
Purple Drink is a drug reference in and of itself. Promethazine cough syrup with codeine and soda.
jtrpdx
April 26, 2017 @ 3:02 pm
It’s actually “Purple Drank”. You folks are so country sometimes! (totally kidding). : )
Kevin Smith
April 26, 2017 @ 9:52 am
New study I’m releasing : People who listen to country music are all dying at alarming levels. Shockingly it seems , studies are showing that ” everyone who listens to country music….dies….eventually! Now gimme some government funding!
shastacatfish
April 26, 2017 @ 10:17 am
Perhaps I missed it somewhere, but what is the time frame on this study? That would seem to be a pretty salient point to mention. Are they are limiting the time to the last 10 years? 20-30 years? The whole history of the genre? If the last, then only jazz has been around for a comparable amount of time as country.
Also, what is their sample base? Are they talking mainstream country you hear on the radio or the whole corpus of country music? Are they talking blatant references with specific words or simply alluding to something. Do they count it simply due to a reference or does context matter?
Honestly, it seems to me that in reading the article that the focus still falls on rap. The fact that country is supposedly the worst offender barely even gets mentioned. Also, what does 1.6 times even mean? 1.6 times per song? 1.6 times per album? Am I missing something obvious?
CCRR
April 26, 2017 @ 10:26 am
You’re not missing anything….it’s a poorly done “study” – or at least it’s poorly documented
Harrison
April 26, 2017 @ 10:53 am
Yea… they must’ve left Future out of the rap study…. also, I think there are other aspects than just drugs that can go into making something “family friendly.” For example, on Travis Scott’s most recent album, “birds in the trap sing McKnight,” quite literally every song blatantly has the N word and the F word, and almost all of the songs if not all of the songs have a reference to weed cocaine or some form of cough syrup. Futures 2 new albums are much the same way and his older stuff is worse. Drake’s more life, while being slightly more sensored, still isn’t exactly “family friendly.” Not sure how the study was done but I’m not sure I believe it!
CountryCharm
April 26, 2017 @ 11:12 am
Country is finally catching up to a trend that’s almost becoming passe in other genres. Country Hipster culture and East Nashville 3 years after it hit it’s peak everywhere else. Instead of singing about beer and tailgating the new trend is whiskey and highways in every other song. Country is not immune to marketing and hype. Just delayed.
TwangBob
April 26, 2017 @ 11:56 am
True Dat! Country music has always been a follower. What happens in R&B reaches Country music a few years later. From the lyrical styling (longer verse lines with alliterations and inner rhymes) and topical lyrical content to the use of electronic beats and overall musical instrumentation. Country music is not a trend setter.
Snarky Anarky
April 26, 2017 @ 11:51 am
the only problem I have with drug references is that all the cool kids on mainstream country radio have to have a line about pot or being high in their songs now. smoking (of any variety) and tattoos seem to be the current i’m-a-badass disclaimer that songwriters HAVE to mention.
As far as non-mainstream goes (from what i’ve noticed/listen too), drug references are more prevalent, i think – but far less glamorized… or at least there’s a balance, showing the ups and downs.
CCRR
April 26, 2017 @ 11:56 am
I agree with this…although I’m seriously going to have to start listening for these constant weed references on country radio, because I’m apparently missing them….
Trigger
April 26, 2017 @ 12:47 pm
Right after I posted this article I was listening to Brad Paisley’s new album. There’s a song on it called “One Beer Can.”
“It could’ve been a rubber
Or a half-smoked joint
The hardest part is
It was almost fine
They drank a hundred beers
And cleaned up ninety-nine”
There’s also a song called “Contact High.” See all the folks above commenting about all the songs comparing love to drugs.
Unfortunately, I don’t have the luxury of remaining delightfully ignorant at what happens in the mainstream, and I’m hearing drug references all over the place.
CCRR
April 26, 2017 @ 1:01 pm
Right, but that’s on the album….not on radio. lol I am not trying to be delightfully ignorant (although maybe I am? I listen to radio a lot less these days), I agree it’s there but maybe not as “all over the airwaves” as is being implied. Chris Stapleton and Kacey Musgraves come to mind as most recent singers with songs that have multiple weed references, but even their worst offenders are album cuts and you likely won’t hear it on radio (with the exception of a few from Kacey). It’s whatever….I get the point you are trying to make. Not sure I completely agree, but as always, I appreciate you starting the discussion.
Snarky Anarky
April 26, 2017 @ 3:51 pm
Zac Brown Band, Toes: ‘Gonna lay in the hot sun and roll a big fat one
And grab my guitar and play’ (half the time i hear it on the radio, it’s edited)
Gary Allan, It Ain’t The Whiskey: ‘It ain’t the whiskey. It ain’t the cigarettes. It ain’t the stuff I smoke.’ (i don’t think this one got played on the radio much which is a shame cause it’s a good song)
Gary Allan, Watching Airplanes: ‘I wonder what you’d do if you looked out your window / Saw me runnin down the runway just like i was crazy / That fence is too high so am I’
those have been out a few years. Jason Aldean has the Barstool song and in that Burning It Down song, the entire premise is getting stoned and screwing (nothing wrong with that but at least write a better song about it)
FGL, Sun Daze: ‘But all I wanna do today is wear my favorite shades and get stoned’ (this is usually edited on the radio)
…this is just what i can think of off the top of my head. not presenting it condescendingly, just trying to save you some time haha (and the first three i mentioned are the only ones worth listening to on this list)
CCRR
April 26, 2017 @ 4:02 pm
All good examples but these are over a long time period….I’m more talking about what I’ve been hearing lately. But you’re right, there certainly are references aplenty to be found over the years.
Snarky Anarky
April 26, 2017 @ 4:24 pm
also one of the newer Blake Shelton songs and a couple of the newer Kenny Chesney songs (at least one for sure) ..some Eric Church songs, but not sure if they were singles. Record Year had the needle metaphor but maybe i read too much into that one..
the names escape me. i try to keep away from radio but my wife will have it on.
CCRR
April 26, 2017 @ 5:17 pm
New Blake and Kenny songs huh? Didn’t know that. I don’t disagree it’s absent from country, my first comment said country is full of marijuana references! I just don’t hear it constantly on the radio RIGHT NOW like I feel was being implied. But maybe I’m immune to it now ha! And yeah, Eric Church for sure references it – but only two singles I can think of….and a couple that weren’t. The Record Year reference for sure is a “using music to numb the hurt much like one would use a drug” kind of thing, but are we counting that as “drug references”? I mean, I guess that counts if you’re being very literal and non-specific in context of the mention…anyways all interesting stuff…love the discussions on this website.
Snarky Anarky
April 27, 2017 @ 6:31 am
CCRR – for sure, i do enjoy the conversation.
I usually make it a policy to not read comments anywhere on the internet but I usually do here – sometimes I’ll learn something haha. I’ve only recently started commenting on here myself but have read the site for a few years
Dick
April 26, 2017 @ 11:54 am
It’d be interesting to see the sample size of the study and how many different types of country were looked at. This can’t all be laid at pop country’s door (and it’s not necessarily a bad thing, anyway). As has been pointed out, Sturgill Simpson, along with Whitey Morgan and, I believe Colter Wall, have painted various drugs in a positive light.
Mo Crawford
April 26, 2017 @ 12:46 pm
All the hate on EDM is unfounded..those artists are constantly pushing the envelope, it just gets a bad rap when Hack Brown tries to do it
Ryan
April 26, 2017 @ 1:15 pm
Hip hop changed to only being about b*tches, hoes, f*cking – their lyrics/songs have become just as repetitive and banal as country music.
CountryCharm
April 26, 2017 @ 2:43 pm
That was hip hop years ago. Nowadays a lot more of it has to do with social commentary with still a good dose of braggadocio, wealth and luxury.
Lone Wolf
April 26, 2017 @ 3:37 pm
@CountryCharm:. Yep. Early and mid to late 80’s rap/hip hop lyrics were mostly about making money, women, talking the talk and having a great time. They were light, fun and relatively unoffending. Most of those groups/artists were from the East Coast, too. West Coast rap/hip hop changed all that in the early 90’s – coincidently when grunge music became popular. Music was certainly a bit uglier at that time, no doubt.
GrantH
April 26, 2017 @ 4:40 pm
Hip hop and rap artists mention drugs just as often as they ever did before. Seriously, check out songs by rappers such as Future and Migos who are at the top of the rap charts consistently these days. Their songs constantly reference using drugs such as lean, various pills, etc.
Rob
April 26, 2017 @ 2:00 pm
I’m going to have to call BS on this one. With a large number of hip-hop/rap songs sounding like “Mask Off” by Future (which literally has two words repeated in the chorus: molly and Percocet) and “Bad and Boujee” by Migos, this just doesn’t seem to add up. Even if hip-hop/rap is somehow below country on this list, there’s no way it should be at the bottom.
bacon
April 26, 2017 @ 2:51 pm
Stay away from the cocaine train.
Rockies
April 26, 2017 @ 3:11 pm
Like David Allan Coe said:
“Cowboys do more dope
Than rock ‘n’ rollers”
Lone Wolf
April 26, 2017 @ 3:30 pm
Hmmmm. This is one of those posts that has me surprised but not surprised. Trig, if this particular angle goes national, I wonder how many of the people behind these lyrics will use the old, “Well, my lyrics we’re taken out of context. I don’t endorse drug use of any kind. It’s just art. It’s poetry. Nothing to read into.” slant.
Corncaster
April 26, 2017 @ 4:12 pm
well, this is a pitiful state of affairs
guess I’ll go back to reading Shakespeare and watching Clint Eastwood westerns
drugs just aren’t that interesting, like the people who take them
CountryKnight
April 27, 2017 @ 7:25 pm
You can’t go wrong with Shakespeare.
Sam Cody
April 26, 2017 @ 5:04 pm
If country music was still “Three chords and the truth”, the only drug these little punks would be singing about would be St. Joseph’s Baby Aspirin…
shastacatfish
April 26, 2017 @ 7:07 pm
I’ve been ruminating on this subject all day and there is one thing I keep circling back to. I do think there is an increase in drug references in country music, whatever its stripe. While there have always been references to it, it was usually manifest in two ways. First was as a cautionary tale (as mentioned earlier). The second was often in the form of self-medication stemming from heartache. So now, what I keep coming back to is that there seems to be more references to purely recreational use. Moreover, that form of drug use seems (I can be TOTALLY off base here, but it seems to fit) at the expense of blue collar working man songs. Those used to be a staple of country music but I honestly can’t think of a recent one. The way time is invested in song narratives seems to be changing. Obviously this is not necessarily a one to one exchange. One could also say that sitting on a tailgate has replaced working man songs, but I don’t necessarily see that as a novel element in a song the way prevalent recreational drug use is.
It seems to be one more element of country’s traditions that are falling by the wayside.
Scotty J
April 26, 2017 @ 7:27 pm
Agree. The song about working seems to be just about gone from the scene. Instead it’s all about ‘kicking back’ or whatever. They would probably say that the narrators are still working but the songs are about the downtime but that really doesn’t seem to be represented anymore so the impression is that all these guys do is sit on a tailgate, drive on back roads and compare there ‘girl’ to a dirt road and of course get high.
What an incredibly unrealistic portrait of life.
shastacatfish
April 26, 2017 @ 8:25 pm
I think that Kenny Chesney and his beach BS really started that trend off. The guy was a one note wonder for along time. It’s fine to want to go to the islands, but when that dominates your output (of dubious quality, no less) for years, it gets monotonous but the success starts to influence others.
Scotty J
April 26, 2017 @ 8:45 pm
‘Success starts to influence others’
That is the other thing that seems to be happening more in country than it used to also. Yes, there have been musical trends but I think there has still been lyrical diversity whereas now it seems that there are about three available subjects and every song must use those. It’s probably partly label driven where albums and singles are crafted to fit into boxes not to make quality memorable and above all lasting music.
Country music will come to regret the loss of standards.
Big Cat
April 26, 2017 @ 7:31 pm
A) Who gives a shit
B) let’s not start the family friendly hypocrisy
C) I like smoke and so does Willie
Trigger
April 26, 2017 @ 8:19 pm
I thought it was an interesting topic to offer for discussion, and I’ve enjoyed the discussion.
Big Cat
April 27, 2017 @ 3:53 am
In concept it is interesting but I don’t even know what it means. Much less how long a period they are sampling.
But I think folks need to be careful promoting artist as great (real) country musicans from one era and critique others from today for referencing drug use. Major hypocrisy. The joke (as you point out) is guys like Blake Shelton or FGL throwing weed into lyrics to try and be cool. Which then turns to the opposite of cool.
Guess my point is if someone like Sturgill or Jason Isbell write a song about the ravages of opioid addicition in small town America it’s real as it gets and I’m listening.
Colt
April 26, 2017 @ 8:51 pm
I blame Leroy Virgil
Nate
April 26, 2017 @ 9:04 pm
Does “getting high” count as a drug reference? I swear every other song on the alternative rock station is about “getting high” even if it doesn’t specifically reference what drug.
perfectlyGoodInk
April 27, 2017 @ 5:03 am
Maybe more country stars are learning economics, realizing that making a good illegal creates black markets. Buyers and sellers with disputes in a legal market can go to the legal system. They can’t in a black market. As a substitute, they use violence instead.
Thus, almost all of the violence associated with drugs is actually caused by drug prohibition. Don’t believe me? How about economist Jeffrey Miron:
http://www.nber.org/papers/w6950.pdf
Hmmm. Not that I think about it, it probably has a bit more to do with Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Hank 3, and Sturgill Simpson than a Harvard economist.
Stringbuzz
April 27, 2017 @ 9:08 am
Drugs are huge part of culture. So many sides to that story.
Good songwriters tackling serious subjects result in some damn fine songs.
Rambler
April 27, 2017 @ 9:23 am
Joke’s on them : most of it ain’t even country! 😉
Anne
April 28, 2017 @ 8:20 am
Given the difficulty of neatly sorting out what is country and what isn’t in a world of increasingly loose genre designations, I’d love to know how they decided what to put where (e.g. Americana, which is quite insistent about being independent from country).
fadingrage
April 30, 2017 @ 9:48 pm
no country music actually refers to love and respect more than it has ever referred to drugs, try listening to the song, and what its trying to say, than whether it mentions drugs or not
John
May 4, 2017 @ 6:06 am
I do not believe this matrix one bit if they are saying rap music references drugs the least amount. The difference between rap and other genres is that they are using street terms to reference drugs and doing so at an unspeakable clip. This list is absolutely false.