Center on Media and Child Health

Music Lyrics: How Much Substance Use?

The following was written by guest blogger Dr. Brian Primack, University of Pittsburgh researcher and author of the new study Content Analysis of Tobacco, Alcohol, and Other Drugs in Popular Music.

Let me start out by emphasizing what this article was not: it does not show the effect of music lyrics on young people.  It was just a content analysis.  Still, this is an important starting point.  The next step will be to conduct more careful research that actually tries to determine what effects – if any – musical lyrics have on substance use behavior.

Our main findings were that about one third of popular songs have some reference to substance use.  Because music is so popular, this translates into substantial exposure – we estimate that the average young person will be exposed to 84 music references to substance use a day, or 30,000 references a year.

Although as I mentioned this study does not equate that exposure with behavior, this large exposure is worth considering.  It may have implications for substance use education, for instance.  If young people are hearing 84 references a day to substance use, most of which glamorize it, what kind of effect can we hope to have from a few hours each year of “anti-drug” education?  A more practical and empowering approach may be to teach young people to analyze and evaluate the messages they hear in media regarding substance use.  This approach – sometimes called “media literacy” – may help young people doubt the veracity of these messages, which after all are there to sell music and not to “tell it as it is.”

Another important finding from our study was that there are very different patterns in different musical genres regarding both (1) what kind of substance use is portrayed; and (2) what that substance use is associated with. Rap music portrayed a lot of marijuana.  Country music portrayed alcohol, but not marijuana.  Rock music often showed negative effects of substance use (like addiction).  Country music often portrayed substance use with humor. 

These kinds of findings lead to more questions.  Does the context matter?  Is a reference to substance use more likely to cause a change in behavior if it is associated with particular consequences?  We would probably imagine that young people would be more likely to model substance use behaviors if they look fun or rewarding.  But, that being said, other research has shown that the context might not matter so much – in particular, Dalton, Sargent, et al. showed that smoking in movies is associated with adolescent smoking *regardless* of the context!  What will be the answer with music?

Speaking of smoking in movies, some feel that music is probably not as compelling, since it is auditory and not visual.  On the other hand, music exposure is much larger than overall movie exposure, and music is famous for being linked to adolescent identity.  When Kurt Cobain committed suicide, there was a rash of copy-cat suicides.  If young people were willing to follow him to the grave, might some also have been influenced by the substance use he portrayed in his music?

Disney is Kicking Butts

According to a study by Stanton Glantz, smoking was present in 64% of Disney's youth-rated movies from 1999 to 2006.  Today, Disney announced that they will no longer allow depictions of smoking in Disney-branded films and will discourage smoking in Touchstone and Miramax films, which the company also owns. 

They also pledged to include anti-smoking public service announcements on any DVDs that do include smoking.  Previous research has shown that watching an anti-smoking ad before movies with smoking seemed to "inoculate" viewers and make them less attracted to smoking behavior.

Universal Pictures adopted a similar policy a few months ago.  It states: “As a baseline, Universal Pictures presumes that no smoking incidents should appear in any youth-rated film produced by Universal or any wholly owned Universal Studios film label and released in the U.S.”

Tobacco Marketing Meta-Analysis and Other New Research

In a powerful meta-analysis of 149 studies of tobacco media exposure on youth under 18, Wellman et al conclude that "exposure to pro-tobacco marketing and media increases the odds of youth holding positive attitudes toward tobacco use and more than doubles the odds of initiating tobacco use."

Other new research in December includes:

Robinson, J. L. et al. Relationship between parental estimate and an objective measure of child television watching. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act.

• Found that when children have a TV in their bedroom, parents underestimate how much TV they watch by 3 hours per week.

Schiappa, E. et al. Can one TV show make a difference? Will & Grace and the parasocial contact hypothesis. J Homosex.

• Found that increased viewing frequency of the TV show Will & Grace lead to lower levels of sexual-orientation prejudice among those with the least amount of personal contact with gay men and lesbians. 

Allen, M. L. et al.  Adolescent participation in preventive health behaviors, physical activity, and nutrition: Differences across immigrant generations for Asians and Latinos compared with Whites. Am J Public Health.

• Found that first-generation Asians watch more TV and play more video games than Caucasians do, but showed a decrease in use across generations.  Also found that Latinos use TV and video games in similar amounts to Caucasians, but have that use has not decreased across generations.

Hollywood Company Agrees to Anti-smoking Ads Before Movies

In September, the Attorneys General of 41 states sent a letter to Hollywood's 13 major movie studios asking them to include anti-smoking public service announcements (PSA's) before any movie containing smoking.  The Weinstein Company is the first to take action on this letter, agreeing to insert a truth campaign PSA into its upcoming DVD release of Clerks 2. 

The letter to Hollywood made reference to research by Cornelia Pechmann who found that watching an anti-smoking ad before movies with smoking seemed to "inoculate" viewers and make them less attracted to smoking behavior. 

Studies on the truth campaign have found that the ads are effective in encouraging non-smoking among youth.

New Research in Pediatrics and Tobacco Control

October is apparently a hefty month for media research!  In addition to the 6 articles I posted about last week, there are five other new studies here:

• Published in Pediatrics, Connor examined food advertising on preschool-aimed children and found that most advertisers focused on creating lifelong brand-loyalty rather than generating immediate sales.  CMCH Director, Dr. Michael Rich, was interviewed about this study by CBS-4 in Boston.
• In another Pediatrics article, Sharif and Sargent found that the more television or video games a child played during the week, the more likely they were to do worse in school.  Weekend use of TV and video games was not associated with school performance. 
• In a third Pediatrics article, Ybarra et al found that 9% of youth reported being the target of Internet harassment and one in four of these targets reported being contacted offline as a result of the harassment.  Using the Internet for chat rooms, instant messaging, or blogging increased the likelihood of being harassed. 
• A study by McGee and Ketchel in Tobacco Control found that one in four programs on New Zealand television included smoking imagery.
• An article by Hafez and Ling presented an historical analysis of how Kool cigarettes has used music to target their audience, specifically young African-American males.  Their recent use of hip-hop music aims to target a larger audience. 

2 New Articles About Movies

Jamieson et al have published an article titled Do Films About Mentally Disturbed Characters Promote Ineffective Coping in Vulnerable Youth? in the October issue of Journal of Adolescence.  They found that the more exposure depressed teens had to films depicting mentally disturbed characters, the less likely they were to believe that professional mental help treatment was effective.  The authors suggest that "exposure to fictional depictions of characters failing to get help for mental disorders may have long-term effects on depressed and suicidal youth."

Healton et al have published an article titled Televised Movie Trailers: Undermining Restrictions on Tobacco Advertising to Youth in the September issue of Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.  They found that 14% of movie trailers shown on television in a one-year period contained smoking imagery.  95% of youth ages 12-17 saw at least one of these trailers during that time.  Healton et al suggest that given the connection between exposure to smoking imagery and smoking initiation, public health workers should aim to eliminate the use of tobacco in movie trailers.  You can see other studies on tobacco in the media in the CMCH Database of Research.

MMWR Report - Alcohol Radio Advertising

This week's MMWR report is titled Youth Exposure to Alcohol Advertising on Radio.  After studying ads for the top 25 alcohol brands in the top 104 media markets, researchers found that 49% of the ads were on programs where the audience was disproportionately composed of youth under the legal drinking age.   

New Alcohol and Tobacco Advertising Research

This week, 3 new studies on alcohol and tobacco advertising were released.  One study looked at the kinds and amount of alcohol and tobacco ads shown during televised sports.  After content analysis of 83 hours of televised sports, the author found that although commercials for tobacco and alcohol commercials have somewhat decreased as a result of the Master Settlement, companies have turned to other strategies to promote themselves, such as having their brand names mentioned in ads for other products. 

Another study looked at several brewer sponsored "drink responsibly" campaigns, and found that the alcohol companies' seemingly pro-health message serves to subtly promote sales and improve the public's perception of their image. 

A third study looked at the effect of pro- and anti-tobacco messages on whether teens are susceptible to start smoking.  Questionnaires from over 2,000 teens showed that exposure to tobacco advertising increases susceptibility to smoking over time.  With the results of the previous two studies showing that advertisers are becoming more creative with their strategies, it is good to know that the questionnaires here also showed that exposure to anti-tobacco advertisements was effective in preventing smoking.

Click to see more research on alcohol advertising or tobacco advertising from the CMCH Database of Research.