Sunday, September 7, 2014

Dance Drugs

Within the last decade, electronic music has made its comeback in the United States and with its return, it has grown to become more and more popular among teenagers and young adults. With the new scene of dance music, the drug epidemic tags closely behind. When the average citizen hears words like “rave” or “festival” a commonality that pops into their head is the use of stimulating and hallucinogenic drugs, specifically, a new strain of MDMA called Molly. Coincidentally, the song by European producer Cedric Gervais is titled “Molly”.

This music video shows no hesitation in embracing and almost publicizing the abuse of the drug. After taking the drug, the user experiences increased heart-rate, which leads to overheating, extreme sweating, and potential dehydration, and also increased levels of dopamine in the brain. In other words, it makes you sweaty, energetic, and really happy. In the video, the actors are clearly shown drench in sweat. The amount of times a person is shown profusely sweating is almost a bit uncomfortable. Along with this, the people in the video are dancing crazily saying, “I just want to dance”, a common phrase said from users of the drug. Lastly, throughout the song the lyrics “Where is Molly? Do you know where I can find Molly? Have you seen Molly?” repeat for what seem to be like forever and all of which are quotes from users at festivals and shows.

The connection that most people make in their head of associating party drugs with dance and electronic music is not a good connection. Initially, one may think that DJs and producers may be against things like this occurring at there shows, but this shows anything but that. It actually enhances the stereotype that all people interested in this type of music are druggies. Not only does the drug cause slight depression after it wears off but can actually kill in some cases. Showing off the “advantages” of this drug to the public and young kids interested in music is advertising false happiness and embracing the bad stereotype that already exists.



2 comments:

  1. The glorification of drug use has greatly increased over the past few years, with it becoming very prominent in rap and now it is becoming an integral part of music. This video also would be great if you were going to make a blog entry about the objectifying of women.

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  2. I agree entirely. The glorification and following association with drug abuse is growing ever more abundant in the music industry. This not only influences those watching and listening to the music toward later use and abuse of drugs, but also leads to those against such messages claiming that all music of any one genre must be condemned for what something many such songs are innocent of.

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