One in five songs in top ten UK charts refer to booze

Musical hangover! As many as one in five songs in the UK top ten charts include references to alcohol, a new study has found.
Researchers in the US have documented a rise in alcohol references, including mention of specific brands, in popular music.
However, until now, little data was available on comparable UK trends.
Researchers from Liverpool John Moores University, UK led by Katherine Hardcastle, selected four focal years for analysis, comparing music charts across four decades.
They found a significant jump in the number of times alcohol was mentioned.
Songs charting in 1981 contained relatively few references to alcohol, with the number declining further in 1991.

Rave culture was popular in this period; a music scene linked more to Ecstasy than alcohol. But the alcohol was back in music by 2001, featuring in eight percent of popular hits.

This figure continues to climb, more than doubling by 2011, with almost one in five (18.5 per cent) top 10 songs featuring alcohol-related lyrics.
Alcohol-related song lyrics are associated with urban song genres and US artists, with lyrics generally putting a positive spin on alcohol consumption, said researchers.
Drinking is linked to confidence, gregariousness or physical attractiveness, as well as outcomes such as wealth, success, or sex, they said.

Chart-topping singers voice the negative effects of alcohol on health and wellbeing far less frequently, researchers said.
Lyrics have an impact beyond the US and UK, Hardcastle suggests, pointing out that US and British songs often have global appeal, they said.
For example, US artist Katy Perry's 2011 single "Last Friday Night" detailing excessive drinking and risky, antisocial behaviour, achieved a top 10 position not only in the US and the UK, but also in Australia, Austria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lebanon, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Slovakia, Spain and Venezuela, researchers claimed.
It is highly likely that we underestimate the true extent of exposure to pro-alcohol messages young people hear, said Hardcastle.

"Public health concerns are already focused on the impacts of alcohol advertising on the drinking behaviours of young people, yet the growing reference to alcohol in popular music could mean that alcohol promoting messages are reaching much larger audiences; regardless of restrictions (eg age) on direct advertising," said Hardcastle.
The study appeared in the journal Psychology of Music, published by SAGE.