For hundreds of years people have been using and will continue to use drugs. What is not widely known, and what I have been investigating is claims that this use of drugs has in some periods of time had massive impacts on culture.
To begin with events in mind, during the late 12th century there is some of the first recorded cultural drug use in history. At the Cambodian temple Angkor Wat festivals were held in order to celebrate and entirely based around the consumption of the various different strains of mushroom that grow within its walls (and continue to grow there today) [1] . It is this very primitive mixture of culture and drug use that could possibly in my opinion show how we have maintained that similar association today, and will continue to do so. Skipping forward four hundred years to the end of the 16th century, there is loose evidence again to suggest the use of mushrooms within some of the most high culture of its time; William Shakespeare. In his writings he talks of ‘demy puppets...whose pastime is to make midnight mushrumps’, telling us how mushrooms given by fairies seem to imbue people with ‘an intrinsic earthly, grotesque and gnomic humour, or with all the beauty, glamour, danger and charm of a faerie enchantment’. Whilst in my view this is quite a loosely based assumption, if true this suggests that some of the finest culture in human history was influenced by drugs.
What is clear from reading chapters from Drugs and Popular Culture by Paul Manning [2] is that there has always been a strong bond between drugs and music, displayed through journalism, biography and fiction, the lyrics of songs, the cultural practices of popular musicians and audiences, and through musical forms and performance styles. During the 1920s in the States, drugs assisted on the gradual decline over the coming decades of high culture (in terms of music) into low culture. This was a result of the public starting to protest against the classical forms of music and turn towards jazz and blues, associated from the start with illegal substances and organised crime as a result of the musician’s social habits. Jazz musicians were among organised crime’s best customers as they saw illegal drugs as a performance aid, the greatest examples of this being Miles Davis and John Coltrane, who both took heroin, which apparently would increase the volume and quality of their performances. This went on to influence their fans and fellow lesser musicians in Britain into taking the drug in order to play and live like black musicians from the states.
This seems to be a reoccurring theme throughout the 20th century and in modern society, with people wanting to imitate their heroes and idols. ‘Benzedrine’ said James Bond. ‘It’s what I shall need if im going to keep my wits about me tonight. It’s apt to make one a bit overconfident, but that’ll help too.’ He stirred the champagne so that the white powder whirled among the bubbles. Then he drank the mixture down with one long swallow. ‘it doesn’t taste,’ said Bond ‘and the champagne is quite excellent’. This image of a hero from popular literature doing drugs provides people with an aspiration to do what said hero does. Five years on from Ian Flemming’s Moonraker, the early sixties saw the first branches of drug related music groups emerging. For the pop-scene it was speed and amphetamines, while on the other side of the spectrum the immigrants from the Caribbean and the Indian subcontinent heavily associated with the recreational use of marijuana brought in calypso, bluebeat, ska and reggae. Drugs, Paul Manning claims, also actually created a music culture. He states it was LSD and its effects that produced some of the most commercially successful bands in British history, such as Pink Floyd and Genesis. They focused on ‘the lengthy timescale of the acid trip rather than the shorter hit of cocaine or speed, or dub reggae’s metonymous relationship with ganja mediated through the recording studio.’ This fact is questionable, as it is clear that the effects of LSD did inspire the musicians, but to say it ‘created’ that culture is a little strong; more like ‘assisted’. However, it does appear that the main influence that drugs have on popular music is when musicians attempt to replicate the feeling and effects of a drug through their music.
To the public these actions by artists could have been hugely influential and most likely ended up with people taking drugs as a result, however after the 1970s there were strong legal implications put in place to prevent this use to the public as a result of the deaths surrounding the misuse of drugs. Therefore, while the drug related deaths of artists such as Jimi Hendrix did not stop the masses idolising their musical heroes, it definitely started to have negative perceptions, placing drug users in a minority. As a consequence, this minority was then pushed once again into pursuing legal ways of taking drugs, resulting in the mass use of Ecstasy, Cocaine and the dance and rave scene...References:
1. Shroom: A Cultural History of the Magic Mushroom by Andy Letcher, published by Faber and Faber Ltd. in England in 2006.
2. Drugs and Popular Culture by Paul Manning, published by Willan Publishing in Devon, England in 2007.
Images:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Buddhist_monks_in_front_of_the_Angkor_Wat.jpg accessed on the26th October 2011
2. http://shakespeare.mit.edu/ accessed on the26th October 2011
3. http://50pebooks.xp3.biz/BOND.html accessed on the26th October 2011
4. http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=1440 accessed on the26th October 2011
