Country Songs Reference Drugs More Than Any Genre, New Study Claims
Country music is well known as being a genre that showcases three chords and the truth, and it's also proven to have the most drug references. A new study published on Addictions.com claims country music is in the lead for having the most references to drugs and paraphernalia in song — more than any other musical genre.
The study was sent to Newsweek, who report that country's popularity for drug references is trailed by the jazz, pop, electronic, rock, other, folk and rap genres. While some music fans may be surprised by rap falling behind country when it comes to songs discussing drugs, a data professional explains a possible theory.
Logan Freedman, a data scientist at Addictions.com, tells Newsweek the rap genre "could be undergoing a fundamental transformation." However, he stresses that more research is needed to determine the exact factors as to why rappers aren’t talking about drugs like they have in decades prior.
"I think there was a huge drug culture in the '90s that was blossoming into rap music that simply isn’t as big as it once was," Freedman explains. "It’s really amazing, I think because marijuana has become more normalized in our culture, a lot of country artists are signing about it more often than ever."
His data researching musical history by decade found that it was in the '60s that drugs were mentioned increasingly more in the media, thus making its way into songs.
"We did this study to raise awareness about how drug references in music may interact with addiction, and to alert people in case they want to avoid hearing about drugs in their everyday music," he adds.
For more on the study, visit Addictions.com.
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