Its approximately 6 pm on a Thursday evening as I enter my parents house after a long day at work. As I walk up my stairs I hear the sounds of Drake and Kendrick Lamar bumping. In my head, I'm hoping its coming from my room and that I forgot to turn off my radio. But it's not and it's coming from my youngest sibling's room. She is 16 and rapping the lyrics as if she wrote the song herself. I enter my room and I sit down. I'm listening to her recite each and every word and I begin to think back to the days when I thought it was cool to curse and act ghetto. The door opens and she goes downstairs, she starts joking with my mother and father, then she says a phrase I wasn't ready to hear from someone her age, let alone my own sister.
"Hey mom do you know where I can find Molly?"Needless to say,my parents are utterly clueless as to what my sister is actually referring to and they laugh it off because they don't know any better. Before you think this another terrible D.A.R.E. campaign or those anti-tobacco commercials, please hear me out. I get that she was merely rapping lyrics to a song that I myself can recite. I get that shes 16 and has a tremendous amount of maturity to attain. But I can't help but feel a certain level of responsibility to scold her and correct this flawed mentality. After all, I am apart of the present EDM craze here in the US. I am a House fanatic who attends these events regularly and is constantly surrounded by the aforementioned Molly.
So how can I not speak up and let her know the true facts around this mentality and lifestyle.That it isn't cool to pop molly or do any other drugs. That people who feel the need to experiment and act like it's no big deal are usually the ones who get themselves in over there head and cant escape. I don't take the drugs simply because I know I would enjoy it too much. Yes that's right, I admit that the drug is most likely awesome but I'd rather stay away from it even if it makes me a pussy. Ultimately I know myself better than anyone and my love for the music is not tied to anything, especially not drugs. I know an abundance of people who only listen to the music and go to the festivals because they want an excuse to take the drugs. This has got to end and it needs to end now.
It all comes down to America's favorite new fad and business model, using the most popular DJ's and producers in the world to hype each and every event as if it's the largest EDM event ever. Toss in some palm trees, overpriced bottle services, models, smoke machines, lasers, and psychedelic fixtures and you have people spending hundreds and even thousands of dollars attending these events and taking the form of ecstasy that has been deemed safe and pure by the majority. The truth is, it's not all that safe or healthy for you. While the drug may make you smile from ear to ear and dance your face off, it is still a highly potent chemical that affects your body temperature and brain function ultimately.
This leads me to my main point: I am tired of House music and its events being given a bad reputation because most view it as a gathering of drug raving lunatics. Furthermore, I can no longer sit back and allow the youth of society to believe it is acceptable to take these drugs. There is something about the music that allows people to put all their emotions and issues aside and enjoy the pure production of talented artists. But there is and always has been the presence and abuse of narcotics. It's one thing for a 25 year old to make that decision, its entirely different when your talking about kids.
It's not that its acceptable to take it because your above the age of 21 but at least at that point you should be mature enough to make those decisions and understand the consequences. My 16 year old sister doesn't posses that maturity and I don't want useless politicians to start banning House concerts because 14 year olds are getting high on molly.
So this is my plea to everyone and anyone, be a responsible adult and educate the youth on the consequences of making these types of decisions. EDM is a great form of music and people genuinely enjoy
taking part in concerts, festivals, and seeing there favorite artists perform at the most baller clubs. Lets not ruin it by being completely reckless and idiotic.
No comments:
Post a Comment