The Effect of Drugs on the Rock and Roll Culture

Music and drugs have gone together hand-in-hand ever since the explosion of rock and roll on the American culture in the sass's. Since then, many gifted performers have succumbed to drug-induced deaths, which Is why I feel that drugs negatively effected rock music. Many great pieces of art have been rumored to be created while under the influence of several drugs, or to be inspired by these drugs. Many artists over the years have used drugs as an excuse to escape their fame, and many have used different types of drugs for inspiration for writing pieces of music, or as for an â€Å"extra boost† for a live show.While drugs may have helped great works of art to be enjoyed by many, drugs are ultimately responsible for many untimely deaths of many great artists, who died before we could truly see their potential. The sass were an era unlike any other in American history both culturally and politically. Many new changes were being made at this time in our government, and with severa l tragic events occurring In what seemed to be a series of events (the assassination of JEFF, the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jar. And Vietnam), the styles of music during this time often reflected the emotions of people. The lyrics of the music of the time were changing from simple love songs, to harsh songs about topics such as rebellion, protest, sex, and more increasingly, drugs. As psychedelic drugs became more and more popular in America, bands such as the Jefferson Airplane and The Grateful Dead saw an immense increase in their number of fans, due to large amounts of people who had an affinity for this new, Jam rock style of music which was very popular with the psychedelic drug scene (â€Å"American Culture: 1960-1969†).Many artists at the time were coming out with albums dedicated to drugs, or albums whose intent was about drugs. One such album was The Beetles' SST. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which, In addition to including drug-oriented songs, presen ted a body of Interrelated pieces that constituted an organic whole. This is considered the first â€Å"concept album. † In a concept album, all songs contribute to a single effect or unified story.The Beetles' album was often considered to have been the first concept album, primarily because the title song, occurring In two versions, wraps around the rest of the album like bookends: however, most of the songs on that album are actually unrelated to one another (â€Å"Rock Music: The late sass and sass's: rocks golden age†). These new â€Å"concept albums† would come to dominate music over the next 10-15 years, as many new artists came to surface with music that mixed with drugs, and often provided fatal results.During the sass and sass, the influence of drugs in musical culture was at its peak. Woodstock; a three-day public concert that became notorious worldwide as a concert protesting the Vietnam War, was heavily saturated with drug usage. During this time pe riod, some of the most gifted musicians of the last 50 years died to drug elated problems. Those who were not dead by drug overdose, such as David Bowel and Alice Cooper became more popular due to their Increasingly bizarre and drug fueled stage antics.Artists at the time had been in tune to the restlessness of American college students, tenet primary announce, Ana Ana uses tenet audiences willingness to accept new ideas and new things as a way of promoting the â€Å"rock and roll lifestyle† of free love, new music, and of course, drugs. Many great musical masterpieces were produced during this time, as â€Å"concept albums†, such as The Who's â€Å"Tommy', and Pink Flood's â€Å"The Dark Side of the Moon†.Both of these albums proved to be wildly popular to both the band's fan following as well as the mainstream public, as rock music and drug usage seemed to blend together, and were becoming more accepted by the public as the norm (â€Å"Tomorrow Never Knows: Rock Music & Psychedelics in the sass†). Although everything so far seems alright; things take a turn for the worse. It unfortunately took a few tragic deaths to derail the change in public opinion that was happening at this time.The deaths of superstars such as Janis Joplin (a famous and talented singer who was a star at Woodstock, died of a heroin overdose), Jim Morrison (lead singer of The Doors, died after a heart attack brought on by drug abuse), and Jim Hendrix (considered to be one of, if not, the greatest guitarist of all time, death by choking after barbiturate abuse), brought a shock to the music culture, as seemingly more and more musicians were dying due to the abuse of drugs, day after day.It seemed as if the music and drug cultures were slowly drifting away from each other and out of the mainstream spotlight, until the sass when several new deaths involving musicians and drugs came into the limelight. Kurt Cabin considered by many to be the most talented musician of the last 1 5 years, committed suicide by shotgun, after using extremely high amounts of heroin. This event came as a shock to almost everyone not only in the music and drug worlds, but everywhere because Nirvana (Cabin's band) was becoming internationally known, partially the reason for Cabin's suicide.Heroin was an inspiration for Cabin, and while it may have helped him to produce his music, it ultimately lead him into the pitfalls of depression and caused the death of a great musician, and the breakup of an excellent, growing, nouns band with limitless possibilities. Another death that occurred in the sass due to drug overdose was Bradley Newell, the lead singer of popular southern California band â€Å"Sublime†, who died off heroin overdose.Sublime was another band with great possibilities to become a lasting force in the music industry, however, Newell decided to destroy himself and his family by forming a deadly habit. Many of the deaths that occurred in the sass con cerning drugs and rock and roll were mostly in the sass, a result of depression and heroin abuse, as heroin usage came increasingly popular with the mid-ass grunge movement, and more and more musicians starting to do it. The sass and sass were both eras of change and protest, Just in a different light.The sass were an era of psychedelic drug usage, where musicians were outgoing, and held Jam fests and large outdoor festival concerts, where the usage of drugs was permitted and most often encouraged. In the sass, music fans and musicians were using drugs as a way of protest and inspiration; however, the sass were a different case. In the sass, musicians often kept to themselves, as most deaths were due to a lethal mix of depression and previous mental problems and the addiction to dangerous street drugs such as heroin and cocaine (â€Å"Sex, Drugs N' Rock & Roll? Nah†).While the sass were an era of freedom, where individuals were encouraged to express themselves Ana level Trebl y, ten Ana Tolling were an era of oppression, where everyone was put together as one big piece, and in order for people to break free from this â€Å"piece† and establish themselves, they must do something groundbreaking or different than what is typically expected. Music and drugs have always been intertwined; however, this relationship has offered over time due to changes in the cultural and political atmosphere of the area during the time where sad music was created.The general publics feelings about certain events and policies at the time of occurrence is often what most influences how something will interact with something else (and in this case, the interaction of the drug culture and the music culture). During the sass and ass, many artists released experimental types of music and experimental albums simply because the material they were producing was groundbreaking, it was simply music that no one ad ever produced before.In the sass, artists were often trying to gain infamy for their music and for their uniqueness, not for the corporate material that the executives had packaged them to be. Drugs and music will always be related, as long as there is something to speak out against and someone, somewhere to speak out against it. People use music as a way of voicing their opinions, and thus drugs and music will remain related, and drugs will continue to influence the musical culture, despite the possibility of death or mental depression they can cause.