What happened to the music?
If one was to ask young people "What is life?" they would all immediately insist, without hesitation, "Music is life!". This sentiment is seen to be echoed throughout the history of time by youth the world over.
For as long as anyone can personally recall, adults have always said of new music "that's not music, that's just noise!". And for just as long, authorities have always blamed one type of music or another for the youthful attribute of 'risk-taking'.
In the 30s they were referring to 'satanic' jazz and swing (associated with marijuana) which are, today, favoured by a majority of adults who, surprisingly, don't smoke pot. During the 50s they were referring to soft rock (associated with prescription-med abuse) which was virtually outlawed on all radio stations, also favoured by many med-free adults today. By the 70s the focus shifted to heavy rock (associated with LSD) and by the 90s electronic music was the scourge of society (associated with cocaine and heroine).
The question posed here is: did music necessarily lead to youth taking drugs or were/are youth naturally attracted to music while simultaneously possessing the youthful quality of risk-taking?
For the former presumption to hold true, all the music genres associated with drugs throughout the last century should possess, at least one or some, common attribute/s. Specific words forming power of suggestion, for example, is a highly improbable link since many targeted genres have no lyrics at all. Certain patterns forming hypnotic suggestion are also improbable given the wide variation in targeted styles over the years.
So common was the former presumption that much new music was once thought to be so evil in nature that youth could play their vinyls backwards to receive surmons from the Devil himself (a common thought popularised in the 70s). Today, this Christian-based misconception is less prevalent even though modern technology has made it possible to play music backwards at the click of a button. There's an App for that!
The laws of probability indicate the latter presumption - that youth are naturally attracted to music while, at the same time, representing the sub-group of society most vulnerable to substance abuse - is far more likely to be the case. History demonstrates young people have been dying from drugs at pop-concerts since ever pop-concerts have existed, irrespective of the music genre and irrespective of whether they're held indoors or outdoors.
It's important to pause and reflect for one moment on the term "modern electronic dance music" (or EDM), which has been made synonymous with today's drug-culture. Until recently, EDM wasn't a highly featured genre on the music charts and, historically, it attracted only a select following. Today, EDM has become more popular, the following is now mainstream and it's primarily youth who are attracted to it.
Herein lies the reason that EDM must be firmly divorced from the topic of drugs. The audience is no longer a select few, it now includes the vast majority of youth as well as primary school aged children. Modern drug education strategies need to be age appropriate and, at present, they are not.
Byron Bay Blues Festival also attracts a lot of youth and experiences its share of drug arrests, yet there are no police warnings about drugs during the event. In fact, after much research, it has been established the police only promote drugs during EDM events.
The power of suggestion is not coming from EDM music itself, it is coming from the relentless promotion of drugs via political campaigns before during and after EDM events.
After nearly 100 years of the traditional practice of demonising music, an update in public dialogue and rhetoric is urgently and morally required. Drug education needs to be age and subject appropriate if it is to perform any other function than rhetorical drug promotion.
