Drugs and Music

700 Words2 Pages

Throughout the evolution of popular music in American culture, many factors have been instrumental in the inspiration musical artists. The wide range of sources reflects the variety and creativity of music in the modern day that musicians claim as their muses, ranging from religious beliefs to love interests. However, the primary driving force behind the creative minds in music in the United States has undeniably been the drug subculture that was the largest at the given time period. Without the use of recreational drugs by artists, popular music would have taken an entirely different and unimaginable evolutionary path, resulting in a completely different musical world. Music is what is taken from drug culture to be incorporated and sold by mainstream culture. By looking back at past decades in popular music, it can be made clear that there is a bond between the shifting drug use trends and the popularity rise in a particular genre of music, or, at times, the creation of musical movements.

In the 1960s, “hippie” culture and the use of hallucinogenic drugs, in particular LSD, became...

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