Listening to music may inspire kids to drink as research suggests that pop music influences adolescents to drink alcohol.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention points out that 39 percent of adolescents in the U.S. are current drinkers and around 22 percent adolescents are also binge drinkers. An average adolescent in the U.S. also listens to around 2.5 hours of popular music every day, which may include up to eight mentions of popular alcohol brands.
Researchers believe that there is a strong link between listening to music with the mention of alcohol brands and alcohol drinking behavior in adolescents.
"Alcohol brand names are quite prevalent in popular music," said Lisa Henriksen, senior research scientist at the Stanford Prevention Research Center. "For example, hip-hop/rap lyrics favor luxury brands, such as Cristal and Hennessy, and brand references in rap music have increased fourfold over time, from 8 percent in 1979 to 44 percent in 1997. It would be foolish to think that the alcohol industry is unaware of and uninvolved with alcohol-brand mentions in music. The strategy of associating products with hip culture and celebrities who are attractive to youth comes straight from a playbook written by the tobacco industry."
Brian A. Primack, author of the study and associate professor of medicine and pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh, says that it is the first study to link listening to music and drinking habits in adolescents.
For the purpose of the study, researchers conducted a survey from 2010 to 2011. The survey identified more than 6,000 eligible households across the country with research subjects in the age group of 15 to 23 years. Around 52 percent completed the survey. The researchers say that around 2,541 participants, which comprised 1,296 males and 1,245 females, agreed to join in a web-based survey.
The survey also included independent variables such as liking popular songs with the mention of an alcohol brand and also a correct recall of alcohol brands in some songs. The researchers measured the outcome with variables such as bingeing, suffering from alcohol-related issues, and more.
Based on the data collected, researchers opine that an independent connection exists between listening to music with the mention of alcohol brands and drinking behavior in adolescents and young adults.
The study could now raise the question whether artists should include names of alcohol brands in their songs.
Results of the research will be published in the June 2014 online-only issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.
