Before the 1980s, drugs have never really created mass culture. Substances such as LSD had an influence in inspirational and motivational ways such psychedelic art, displayed here through Brian Exton’s Land of Psychedelic Illuminations, and the creation of a small music genre called ‘Acid Rock’. Marijuana had a strong connection with Reggae and the Caribbean; however people did not have to be a user of drug to enjoy the sounds of the genre. The point I am trying to get across is that, until the late 1980s, these cultures were albeit strongly connected with drugs, but had never affected mass culture. Towards to the end of the 1980s however, all cultural scenes were changing, as were the drugs. One part of this in particular was the music scene, introducing to the public rave culture and the drug that apparently created it; ecstasy. The fast tempo beats of the dance music in the late 80s were specifically designed, according to Paul Manning, ‘to stimulate the ecstasy user’ by increasing the beats per minute to suit the heartbeat of said user. Contrary to what I have read online and in literature, I personally believe that this culture was not a result of drugs, rather it remains in the same field as generations of drug related cultures before it; an influential factor not the creator. Illegal substances may have enhanced the experience, but the music can’t have been brought into the world solely for the enjoyment of drug users. This opinion is formulated by a number of factors. Firstly, due to the media and government’s reactions to raves, where in my view they have simply linked the attendees to the music quite unfairly. To illustrate this I again refer to Paul Manning, who claims that ‘criminals were among the organisers’, which would obviously display an infamous image of all those associated and thereby give the media something to talk about. In addition to this, why if these dance raves were directly and obviously linked to drugs are dance clubs and events now world widely accepted? Even if this demonstrates some form of control, surely something created by drugs and for drug-users cannot be made into a legal act while drugs remain illegal? It is for those reasons why I don’t believe that drugs create culture.
However, rave culture was created and continues to thrive today, but in a different way to how it did in the late 80s and early 90s. The answer to why this is the case could again possibly be connected to drugs. In 1995, the death of an ecstasy user at a rave was being strongly pushed by the government in order to illegalize the substance and those similar to it. The government succeeded, which as one of the consequences marked the arrival of ‘Britpop’ and the apparent end of the ‘ecstasy generation’. What is also interesting is, again according to Manning, this apparently also gave way to the alcohol culture we see today, with results such as ‘massive increases in male-on-male and female-on-female violence and allegations of date rape’. This point aside, what is peculiar is that it is only recently that rave culture has become much more commercial, with music from the current version of that genre now making a firm place for itself in the national mainstream charts. It is doubtful that this has any relevance to the use of drugs; however it would definitely be fair to say that there are some lingering hungers for that past culture that still make it into the cultural world today.As I mentioned earlier and to conclude, acid and its effects seem to have had a significant impact on past cultures such as the art community and music scene of the 60s and 70s, but truly the most astonishing and in turn most influential is actually much more recent. Steve Jobs, one of the worlds’ most highly respected and well known people of our time is reported to claim LSD as a massively important factor concerning his success. “Doing LSD was one of the two or three most important things I have done in my life,” Jobs told a journalist also mentioning that “Bill Gates would be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once”. In a manner of speaking, despite drugs influencing the rave scene and being the driving force behind countless musicians and artists throughout 20th century, the fact that drugs played a major role in the success of a now globally recognized brand, it’s items comfortably settled in millions of households, in my opinion answers best how drugs have really influenced culture.
References:
1. Drugs and Popular Culture by Paul Manning, published by Willan Publishing in Devon, England in 2007.
2. http://www.thefix.com/content/steve-jobs-think-different-and-lsd-9143 accessed on the 14th of November 2011
Images:
1. http://www.designdazzling.com/2010/09/25-amazing-examples-of-psychedelic-artwork/ accessed on the 14th of November 2011
2. http://childrenofthenineties.blogspot.com/2010/02/raves.html accessed on the 14th of November 2011
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