Booze, Drugs, and Pop Music: Trends in Substance Portrayals in the Billboard Top 100—1968–2008

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a content analysis of alcohol and drug portrayals in the top 100 Billboard songs from each of the years 1968, 1978, 1988, 1998, and 2008, thus allowing both a characterization of substance portrayals in music generally and an analysis of changes over time. Of the final sample of 496 songs, 10.3% contained a reference to alcohol and 5.7% contained a reference to drugs. A substantial increase was found over the decades, and in particular over the last two: in 1988, 12% of songs referred to either or both classes of substance, compared to 30% in 2008. Marijuana was by far the most frequently mentioned drug. Both alcohol and drugs were much more likely to be portrayed positively than negatively, especially in recent decades. The results are discussed in terms of relevant theories of media processing and impact.

Keywords :

• music
• pop songs
• substance use
• drug portrayal
• Billboard

THE AUTHORS

Peter Christenson (B.A. Dartmouth College, Ph.D. Stanford University) is Professor of Communication at Lewis and Clark College, Portland, Oregon, USA. His primary area of research is the impact of popular music on adolescents. Dr. Christenson is coauthor of It's Not Only Rock & Roll—Popular Music in the Lives of Adolescents (1998, with Donald Roberts), Substance Use in Popular Movies and Music (1999, with Donald Roberts and Lisa Henriksen), Substance Use in Popular Prime Time Television (2000), and Substance Use in Popular Music Videos (2003, also with Roberts and Henriksen). His most recent work is a chapter on popular music in the Sage Handbook of Children and the Media (2011).

Donald F. Roberts is the Thomas More Storke Professor Emeritus in the Department of Communication at Stanford University. He has spent more than 40 years researching and writing about how young people use and are influenced by entertainment media. He has coauthored books on television and human behavior, on U.S. children's media use, and on the role of popular music in the lives of adolescents. In addition to research and teaching, Roberts has served as an educational consultant for a number of television and digital production companies.

Nicholas Bjork graduated in 2008 with a Bachelor's degree in Communication from Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon, USA. He is currently a reporter for the Daily Journal of Commerce (Portland), where he covers issues related to urban planning and real estate development.

GLOSSARY

Billboard: Billboard Magazine (and Billboard.com). For decades, Billboard has been the major U.S. “trade” magazine for the music industry. Billboard produces the definitive music popularity charts in the United States.

Media cultivation theory: This theory posits (1) that mass media systems in general and television in particular present highly uniform pictures of the world that tend to conceal their biased and selective nature; (2) that most people consume media nonselectively; and (3) that high exposure “cultivates” acceptance of the media's view of the world.

Media impact: This is one of a number of general terms used to refer to the many possible cognitive, attitudinal, and behavioral effects of exposure to mass (or nonmass) media—for example, the impact on young viewers of watching violent content on television. The term is synonymous with “media effects.”

Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP): The Office of National Drug Control Policy, or ONDCP, is a U.S. agency housed in the Executive Office of the President. The ONDCP is charged with developing policy and programs aimed at reducing illicit substance use among Americans, especially youth.

Social cognitive theory: This theory posits that when people attend to media, they acquire new or modify existing mental representations. What is observed, learned, or performed depends in part on characteristics of the modeled display (e.g., is the behavior rewarded? performed by an attractive model?). The display's influence on learning also depends on characteristics of the observer (e.g., gender, race, pre-existing attitudes and experience, current needs and emotional states, etc.). Learned symbolic representations may serve to guide subsequent behavior, depending on a variety of factors (e.g., opportunity, perceived appropriateness, expectations of reinforcement, feelings of self-efficacy, etc.).