Here’s cheers! Study into songs and booze

Did you know a lot of today’s music hits contain added booze?

That’s according to Australian research, which found that alcohol is referenced in around a quarter of popular songs and nearly a third of music videos.

La Trobe Uni researchers reviewed 23 studies examining the prevalence of alcohol-related content in music lyrics and music videos.

They also examined how this impacted drinking behaviours.

Project researcher Gedefaw Alen says 24 per cent of the 12,224 songs analysed contained at least one alcohol-related content in the lyrics or videos.

These alcohol references or imagery (on music videos) included explicit mentions of alcoholic beverages, alcohol containers, drinking behaviours, characters drinking, bar settings, alcohol brands or logos, and expressions of altered states.

Mr Alen says “It is more important than ever to understand the influence of alcohol-related lyrics on our drinking behaviour because we found that both the number of songs that include a reference to alcohol and the amount of time people spend listening to music are increasing.”