Music and Addiction

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Music and Addiction

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Songs can influence the way people feel, think, and act. The following songs have a common theme. Addiction is a very large part of today's society. It can be so powerful that when artists express their ideas and feelings about personal or even interpersonal experiences with addiction, the listener can almost feel what the artist is feeling. Many songs glamorize drug use and drug culture. I tried to find some songs that illustrate the down side of drug use and abuse. In the song Nutshell, lead singer Layne Staley shares the feelings of temptation, hopelessness, and abandonment of heroin addiction. In the song Amphetamines by eve6, he describes some of the unpleasant side effects of taking uppers and compares it to a girl that didnt treat him right. In 40oz to freedom, Brad Nowell, former lead singer of Sublime, describes a world where the potential loves of his life, opportunities, and chances at success come and go and all he can do about each loss is remind himself that he cant control his situation and the only thing that will make him feel better is a $1.50 bottle of cheap beer. In Because I got High, he describes the laziness, apathy, and indifference associated with smoking pot and how it can effect everybody in your life.

"Nutshell"

In the song Nutshell, Layne Stanley starts the song by expressing his idea that all people are presented with some type of temptation sometime in their lives. By saying that people chase misprinted lies, I think he is referring to all of the things in the world that supposedly make people happy and somewhat describes what people will do to achieve that happiness. When people give into these temptations, it becomes a battle within themselves t...

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...use he'd rather get high. In the end, he realizes the affect of drugs on his life and that weed pretty much replaced everything that really mattered to him. Ironically, his apathy and laziness as portrayed at the end of the song is basically what sold this single because there are so many people that can relate to this song in one way or another. It may be a very select crowd, but prominent nonetheless.

These tunes make known the downside of the enjoyable, glamorous, and dangerous drugs that people of all classes of society use everyday. They give off vibes of hopelessness and emphasize painful words and phrases. They describe how quickly something can go from a little relaxing self medication to a full out need. These songs help us to realize the consequences of losing control over our actions and help us to appreciate consciousness and life without addiction.

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