Drugs, Rock Music and Developing Countries Examining

Drugs, Rock Music and Developing Countries

Examining the effects of imported rock music on developing countries and its impact on violence and drug abuse is by no means a simple or straightforward task. One important factor is that this type of music overwhelmingly appeals to young people under age 30, and these are often the majority of the population in many developing nations, especially the Middle East and North Africa. To be sure, because of poor social and economic conditions, many of them cannot speak English and are not able to afford imported music or other cultural products. These types of imports most affect urban upper and middle class youth, who are also most likely to use the new Internet, social media and satellite TV technology. They have a great deal in common with their Western counterparts in that they are attracted to the rebellious nature of this musical form, and with the drug use that goes along with it. Among this group, drugs like marijuana, ecstasy and methamphetamine will be used socially within peer groups, although only a small number of these could be considered addicts. Other drugs like heroin and crack are more associated with impoverished groups, and with all the usual problems of crime, gang violence, prostitution, and domestic abuse. Rock music is most certainly not the major cause of drug abuse and violence in these societies, which often have severe problems with poverty, unemployment, corruption, lack of education and social services, and political oppression. Indeed, violence, drug abuse and addiction are more symptoms of these social and economic problems than their causes. Furthermore, in repressive regimes in the Middle East and other areas, young people attracted to the rock and heavy metal scene are often the targets of official and unofficial violence by the state and religious authorities. For many youth, then, this type of music offers both an escape from an unbearable reality as well as hope for the possibility of social and political change.

From the perspective of the United Nations International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), the glorification of drug use in music, mass media and popular culture has been a major problem for decades. In the 1988 UN Convention against Illegal Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, there are provisions against "glorifying drug abuse and promoting a drug culture" (Ghodse, 2008, p. 78). Another report from the INCB ten years later criticized "the rapid and growing spread of messages in the environment promoting drug abuse," and recommended that the media should develop voluntary codes of conduct "to promote opinions and attitudes against drug abuse" (Drug Demand Reduction, 1998, p. 5). Parents, schools, community groups and peers all influence attitudes toward drugs, and law enforcement measures to reduce the supply would always be ineffective if education and treatment did not simultaneously reduce demand. At the same time, the INCB called for more regulation of the Internet, but opposed all efforts to liberalize or decriminalize possession of narcotics. Honduras, Venezuela and many other countries in the developing world have laws against inciting drug use through music, films, posters, banners of the Internet, and "by far the greatest influence on many young people in developed countries as well as in some developing countries is the promotion or at least tolerance of recreational drug use and abuse in popular culture, particularly in popular music" (Ghodse, p. 80).

Drug abuse among women in developing countries affects their children and other family members, while they are also victimized by substance abusing husbands, boyfriends and fathers. In developing countries, "poverty seems to contribute to substance abuse, and substance abuse exacerbates poverty." It also leads to legal problems, loss of productivity, and industrial and traffic accidents (Carovino, 1995, p. 153). Women drug abusers are often driven into prostitution to obtain drugs like heroin, crack and methamphetamine, and in some areas up to 80% of them test positive for HIV. One study in Honduras found that the children of women drug abusers were more likely to be homeless and to have problems with substance abuse themselves (Carovino, p. 156). Even so, "the fact remains that many more men than women abuse drugs" in the developing world. Drugs and alcohol are frequently associated with domestic abuse of women and children, usually by men who were "unemployed or had no fixed employment" (Carovino, p. 158). In developing nations, drug addiction "results in explosive social violence" (Nazrul Islam, p. 63). About 4.7% of the world's population age 15 to 64 uses drugs of one kind or another, including 150 million marijuana users, 30 million who use amphetamines and 15 million users of opiates such as heroin. Addiction to opiates is a "catastrophic national problem in Bangladesh, which is close to the Golden Crescent and Golden Triangle where 90% of the world's opiates are produced (Nazrul Islam, p. 65).

In Africa, marijuana and amphetamines are the most common illegal drugs, while heroin, morphine and opiates are in Asia. In developing countries, drug users under age 20 mostly use cannabis and inhalants, but "the highest level of illicit drug consumption is in the 20-44y age groups" (Nazrul Islam, p. 70). Users often feel that "drug use enhances their experience of listening to music that elevates their mood and improves a sense of communication with their peers" (Nazrul Islam, p. 69). Frequently they come from poverty and violent family backgrounds, from which drugs and music offer an escape. Others use drugs because of peer pressure, mental health problems or the general stress of modern life. Political and economic instability in the developing countries along with the breakdown of traditional social orders also contribute to drug abuse. Ecstasy (MDMA) is widely used at discos and rave parties in both the developed and developing world, while there is constant "glamorization of illicit drug use through pop music culture, television and film portrayals" and popular singers in Southeast Asia "use cannabis products as a mood inducer during their performances" (Nazrul Islam. P. 69).

Internationally, the United States is by far the leading exporters of popular culture, including television, films and music. This business is controlled by large, multinational corporations and is worth hundreds of billions of dollars a year, although it also tends to undermine local cultures in many developing nations. By the end of the 20th Century, six large multinational conglomerates controlled 70-80% of all record sales in the world. Of course, cultural imperialism always faced certain limits such as resistance in the developing countries and the fact that their audiences were not necessarily passive consumers. In Africa, Asia and Latin America, local reformers developed their own forms of rock music, often combined with local genres. In addition, "consumption of imported culture is severely restricted to the ruling elites, often hardly touching large sectors of the poorest in society" (Stroud, 2008, p. 92). Pirating of CDs and DVDs is also common in countries like Brazil, China and Turkey, and illegally copied versions of imported music sell for one-fifth the retail price. Pirating also undermines local record producers even more than the multinational giants, though.

In Brazil, only one of the six largest record producers is locally owned and surveys indicate that imported rock and pop music always outsell Brazilian records. Starting in 1986, Rio de Janeiro constructed a small city for its Rock in Rio festival, inviting rock groups from all over the world, especially Britain and the U.S., but also featuring some Brazilian rock groups as well. Like many other developing nations, Brazil has invented new rock forms like samba-rock and samba-reggae in an "unapologetic mixture of local and international styles." Young Brazilians view imported rock and rap music as "symbols of empowerment in their relations with the ruling classes," which is a very common attitude among youth in most developing countries (Stroud, p. 103).

From the 1990s, the explosion in use of the Internet and satellite television has increased access to Western mass media exponentially, including conglomerates controlled by Rupert Murdoch and Time-Warner. Music channels like MTV and VH1 found an audience all over the world and in 1994 young people in authoritarian Singapore protested when the government tried to ban MTV because they regarded local music programs as "unexciting" (Kamalipour and Rampal, 2001, p. 2). Even in extremely repressive countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia, where governments openly block Western TV and Internet, people install illegal satellite dishes and Internet connections, and now the developing nations also "experience the sex, violence and drug culture long decried even in the West" (Kamalipour and Rampal, p. 3). In Mumbai in 1994, parents in a high-rise apartment building dumped their TVs out the windows because they were "frustrated with increasing promiscuity among their teenaged children." In Pakistan in 2000, the Taliban even began burning television sets as "satanic" devices (Kamalipour and Rampal, p. 4).

To be sure, sex, drugs, violence and rock music can also be local products rather than simply imports from the United States. Those who oppose globalization as a form of cultural imperialism often fail to realize that local youth find something appealing about the culture and lifestyles portrayed in Western music, films and television. On the other hand, conservatives and traditionalists always blame the corporate mass media from promoting "sexuality, violence, and extreme individualism" (Kraidy, 2001, p. 263). In 1994-95, 97.5% of the 40 highest-earning films showed alcohol and drug use, while in MTV music videos, alcohol was used every 14 minutes and illegal drugs every 40 minutes (Gerbner, 2001, p. 70). Even a country like Lebanon, which is one of the most liberal in the Middle East, although still very socially conservative by Western standards, privately-owned media often came under criticism for portraying sexuality, drug use and violence (Kraidy, p. 270). Western-controlled institutions like the IMF, World Bank and WTO all existed to promote free trade and privatization according to the Washington Consensus, but because of this "traditional social, cultural, and moral values…face the modernizing tide and the changes that it brings" (Kraidy, p. 270). In many traditional Islamic countries like Afghanistan there has always been strong religious and nationalist opposition to "the encroachments of the soul-devouring global economy." While the minority of educated elites and professionals may support Westernization, the majority of people regard this culture as being based on "prostitution, drugs, Hollywood films, rock music, blue jeans" (Corwin, 2003, p. 40). Taliban elements backed by Pakistan are the most anti-Western of all, and wish to destroy every manifestation of Western culture.

Egypt has one of the largest rock and heavy metal scenes in the Middle East, and is also one of the most advanced in the use of Internet, blogging and social media in the developing world, which became very clear in the recent revolution against Hosni Mubarek. Rock and heavy metal scenes exist all over the Middle East, where 65% of the population is under age 30, and all governments in the region felt threatened by the youth bulge and the culture associated with it (LeVine, 2008, p. 5). These musicians and their fans stand out for having long hair and t-shirts, which singles them out for attacks by the police and Muslim Brotherhood. In 1997, over 100 heavy metal musicians were arrested in a "satanic metal" scare, and like in many other countries, this type of youth music is associated with drugs like marijuana, methamphetamine and ecstasy (LeVine, p. 62). For Islam, as in Christianity, pentagrams and upside-down crosses are associated with Satanism and young men wearing such medallions or whose hair is too long are often harassed by the police and attacked in working class and lower-middle class neighborhoods. Hate Suffocation is the most popular of the rock/heavy metal groups, while young men with cars listened to gangster rap and "people who are on drugs mainly listen to electronic music," like their counterparts in the West (LeVine, p. 65). Metal and rock fans also engage in screaming and head banging, and although most of them are young males, occasionally even girls in headscarves appear at these concerts. Even so, Arabic pop is far more popular in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) than any of these imported music forms, and one of the leading pop singers was best known for songs about the hatred of Israel and praise for President Mubarek.

Egypt was one of the most repressive societies in the world when it came to countercultural youth activities. As LeVine noted "only in Iran and Gaza have I felt more eyes focused angrily upon unconventionally dressed young people" (LeVine, p. 70). Mubarek did open Egypt to Western, IMF-style liberalization and privatization in the economic sphere, but not in culture and politics. As in every other country where these 'free market reforms' were put in place, they led to more wealth being concentrated in the hands of the elites, and turned the country into a "sick and decaying place" (LeVine, p. 72). As far as violence is concerned, most young people associated with the rock counterculture experienced far more of it at the hands of the police and Islamists than they ever initiated. Indeed, "most of the violence in heavy metal is depicted as part of a critique of the violence of society at home, especially its warlike propensities" (LeVine, p. 10). Much of the drug use associated with rock and heavy metal is a form of youth rebellion, along with poor economic conditions, alienation, and the loss of hope and community. In the Middle East, as in much of the developing world, young people "are facing dire economic conditions with the added burden of political oppression" (LeVine, p. 11).

In Thailand in 1993, 300,000 people regularly used yaa baa (methamphetamine), 65% of them peasants and laborers, while only 7% were residents of urban slums and shantytowns, and 6% truck drivers. Meth was hardly a sexy or glamorous drug for young people, given its long association with working class persons who labored long and hard and needed to stay awake. In fact, amphetamines known as 'goofballs' or 'speed' were first distributed to soldiers in World War II to keep them awake longer, and then made their way through the motorcycle subculture after the war. Twenty years later, however, methamphetamine was a standard part of the youth, nightclub and gay subcultures in Bangkok and many other cities around the world. As a UN Social and Economic council report found, in many developing countries drug consumption among youth "can be three or four times higher than that of the general population," and young people in Thailand may start using yaa baa as early as age seven (Chouvy and Meissonnier, 2004, p. 82).

Youth in Asia are far less individualistic than those in the West, though, and usually take drugs as part of their peer group. They are often encouraged to do so by older adolescents, who have great influence over their juniors. In Thailand today, the majority of meth users are age 14-25, but most of these are not addicts and use the drug only on "special occasions such as going out with friends to a disco party," although boys also take it because they believe it provides more stamina for sex, sports, fighting and motorcycle racing (Chouvy and Meissonnier, p. 84). Almost never do they drink or take drugs alone, which are considered signs of addiction, which is more likely to marginalize users in Thailand and other Asian countries. In Asian youth culture, yaa baa plays a similar role to marijuana and ecstasy, which are widely shared and passed around in schools and at parties, clubs and concerts. Over the last decade, the Thai government has increasingly cracked down on discos, clubs and parties, especially those that cater to minors, and today Thailand has a middle class "nightclub culture" among youth that is similar to their counterparts in the West (Chouvy and Meissonnier, p. 87). Thailand bans rave parties except on islands that cater to Western tourists, and "it is still impossible to imagine a large-scale event…at which obvious drug-taking would be condoned," and even in clubs and discos the undercover police are on the alert for people with yaa baa pills (Chouvy and Meissonnier, p. 88).