Ask anyone what genre of music mentions drugs the most, and they’ll probably say rap. Or maybe electronic music. And if not those two, it must be rock, right? Well, a new study by data scientists at Addictions.com shows that country music far outweighs those as the leader of drug references within its songs.
The research showed about 1.6 percent of country songs contain a mention of drugs with jazz and pop not far behind.
While the finding is something of a surprise, don’t forget that country music has Willie Nelson on its side.
While electronic and rock fall right in the middle, rap actually came in last place of the eight genres studied (one being simply “other”).
Here’s the graphic from Addictions.com:
Logan Freedman, a data scientist for Addiction.com, told Newsweek hip-hop and rap might be fundamentally transforming into a genre with fewer drug references, but more research is still needed on that front. Freedman also said he believes the normalization of marijuana could be a factor in other genres singing about it more:
“I think there was a huge drug culture in the 90s that was blossoming into rap music that simply isn’t as big as it once was,” Freedman says. “It’s really amazing, I think because marijuana has become more normalized in our culture, a lot of country artists are signing about it more often than ever.”
However, when it comes to individual artists instead of genres, all the top mentioners of drugs are rappers or hip-hop groups. Kottonmouth Kings takes the title with 440 drug references total.
Among the top five referencers for specific drugs surveyed — weed, cocaine, ecstasy, acid, heroin, meth and pills — 31 of 40 were rappers or hip-hop groups. The genre even had a strong presence among some drugs not typically associated with its artists, like acid.
Heroin was the one category rap did not dominate. Three of the odd ones out in that category were European alt rock groups Kent and Kaizers Orchestra, and Swedish singer-songwriter Lars Winnerback. Heroin is a drug typically not associated with rap anyway.
There are some other interesting takeaways from this study. Unsurprisingly, music across genres had basically no drug references until the 1960s, and then a huge spike came in the 1990s. (The study hints MTV could hold some responsibility for this.)
However, ever since drug references peaked in the 2000s at around six percent of records, they have dropped significantly to about only two percent.
Also unsurprisingly, musicians reference weed the most at over 30 percent of total drug references. Weed was the most-referenced drug for six genres and in the top two for all. Although cocaine was the most-referenced drug for only folk music, weed and cocaine together make up more than half of all drug references.
