Paper 2 A very influencing part of the average American lifestyle is the music they are readily listening to on a daily bases. The metaphors in the music can easily become a reference for how they create their ideals. New York Times posted that the average teenager listens to over 2.5 hours of music daily. Riddled with ideas disguised as metaphors it can be understood how some negative concepts and ideals can become a part of anyone listening daily thinking habits. Music’s influence continues to grow readily with the ability to listen to the songs through Mp3 players and personal music systems such as radios and stereos, but the spread of music isn’t the problem it is the words being said. A piece from a New York times Article “Under the Influence of Music” states,
“Studies have long shown that media messages have a pronounced impact on childhood risk behaviors. Exposure to images of smoking in movies influences a child’s risk for picking up the habit. Alcohol use in movies and promotions is also linked to actual alcohol use.”
“The study authors noted that music represents a pervasive source of exposure to positive images of substance use. The average adolescent is exposed to approximately 84 references to explicit substance use per day and 591 references per week, or 30,732 references per year. The average adolescent listening only to pop would be exposed to 5 references per day, whereas the average adolescent who listens just to rap would be exposed to 251 references per day.”

Songs that firmly talk about the use of substances such as Sublime’s Smoke Two Joints, or The Velvet Undergrounds’ Heroin, speak of substance abuse and can lead young adults and children to believing that the use of these drugs is a daily occurrence and their use is not as bad as the general public would have you believe.
It is highly popularized that rap and hip hop music are the biggest culprits of referencing drug abuse in most of the songs such as Lil Waynes constant use of a “lighting up” at the beginning of his songs which is when you hear the flick of a lighter and the deep inhaling of a person smokng but any genre of music can be convicted of substance abuse, such as Purple Haze by Jimmie Hendrix a popular rock guitarist who expresses how the use of the drug makes him feel after using it.
The metaphors in songs can also be taken and used in the negative fashion that the artist puts such as in the song Love Me be Lil Wayne. A piece from the song goes,
I'm on that good kush and alcohol
I got some down bitches I can call
I don't know what I would do without y'all
I'mma ball 'til the day I fall
Ball, ball, ball, ball
Long as my bitches (yeah, yeah...)
I could give a f-ck about no hater, long as my bitches love me
(Yeah, yeah...)
I could give a f-ck about no n-gga, long as my bitches love me Though the song gives you a message to continue on and do what you want regardless of what someone may say to you, it also references that the ultimate means to acquiring money, which is what the statement “ball” means, goes hand and hand with the females that are head over heels for the individual, “long as my bitches love me.”