"Australia's at the dawn of its Summer of Love" - me at Splendour in the Grass, quoted in Is By Bus, 6 August 2008I bet that twat goes to QUT. Specifically, Gardens Point. I should know because I went there for four long years and actually spoke to people that used the phrase "real world" to describe the inane shit they couldn't wait to sit in traffic for after graduating from that brutalist Lego space station. Surely only those walking shells could think the increase in ecstasy consumption amongst young Queenslanders is due solely to the federal government's "alcopop" tax?
"I don't think attitudes to drugs have changed ... a lot of people still feel that drug-taking is morally wrong and extremely risky, they're just making a purely economical decision." - 20-year-old Brisbane university student who requested anonymity, quoted in Brisbane Times , 2 September 2008
No. Professor Jake Najman of the Queensland Alcohol and Drug Research Centre seems to agree (although I am more willing to believe the paper has quoted selectively than I am to believe the good professor's a total nonce), sharing the insight that "Young people will make a trade-off where they see the benefits of a switching to a cheaper product." So does the managing director of Gategrash Security (sic in Brisbane Times) who notes helpfully, "The average price of a pill is now about the same price as a six-pack of bourbon and cola." Fuckin' sweet mate.
I don't doubt that the price of drugs (plural) has a bit to do with their respective popularity. But have these people ever heard of, ooh I don't know, youth culture? Let's break that down further: culture?! Will the next "study" prove that increased sales of fluorescent clothing correlate to the rising cost of natural dyes? Is the current popularity of electronic music dictated by a cold cost comparison between guitars and sequencers and the economically justifiable decision to sack the bass player?
As hackneyed as my Splendour revelation was, it's bleedingly obvious that the last few years have seen a gradual then exponential blooming of ecstasy music, ecstasy fashion and ecstasy consumption. But despite the impressive properties of the drug itself, I don't believe it (or its relative price in units of alcopops) can take full credit. Humanity isn't that boring. Economics would be a whole lot easier if it was. There's no straight chain of causation. It's a web. But that spider's spitting music.
You can have the music without the accoutrements just like you can have the sticky string without the web, but not vice-versa. All those jocks would start to feel mighty silly in their little pink shorts if they were still in the pub listening to Nickelback. Far fewer of the girls who brought their hair-straighteners to the festival would be taking four pills at sunset if they were about to see Grinspoon and Silverchair. I didn't get hugged by a single stranger at this year's RATM-headlined Big Day Out, only 6 months before that Splendour love-in. And speaking of Splendour, did you get a chance to compare the crowd sizes and frequency of bodily movement at Wolfmother and The Presets at the end of Sunday? Yes, these seem like obvious comments. That's because they are. Or should be.
The people behind the analyses of Queensland youth your parents are reading in the paper are the ones that advertise in the street press for recreational drug users to come and answer a survey for $50 (apparently the report quoted in the Brisbane Times was based on a study of 80 recreational drug users). Leaving aside the skew their advertising placement and student/junkie-baiting reward must put on the results, if the researchers want their numbers to reflect reality in any way they will need to revise their questions. To include "radio", "Myspace", "Triple J", "Cleo CD covermount", "TV", "ads", "Facebook", "footy culture", "Daft Punk revival", "Cutters", "Juggers", "indie-dance crossover", "disco punk", "fluoro", "sunglasses", "glowstick", "clothes", "celebrities", "friends", "people" - it goes on - and especially "music". Of course, this is impossible.
I'm not being anti-intellectual. I'm being realistic and giving culture - popular culture, youth culture, music culture - the respect it deserves. And I'm not complaining either. Every cultural development gets exploited by wangs trying to sell shit to kids. Long may the kids remain that little bit too fast.
3 comments:
interesting.
there was a thing in the last Time Off magazine (Wed 27th August) that touched on the subject briefly.
though from a musical rather than drug culture perspective.
holy shit, i never thought of this correlation before, really interesting. i just thought i was getting old or something
Bassists pay for themselves. It´s dual guitarists that throw money down the drain. Supply and demand, bitch.
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