Abstract
Objectives.
To determine the frequency of alcohol, marijuana, cigarettes/cigars, e-cigarettes, and hookah portrayals in popular music lyrics and videos on YouTube across 6 genres over 7 years; assess percent change over the years, document brand placement, and determine frequency of promotion of substances/devices by Teen Choice Award celebrities.
Methods.
We analyzed 699 songs from the Billboard Hot 100 between 2014 and 2020. Two raters coded 10% of the songs to establish inter-rater reliability and remaining songs were reviewed by one rater.
Results.
The majority of songs (59.2%) on YouTube included either lyrical or video depictions and 20.6% included both. Songs that featured substances/devices were viewed 148 billion times on YouTube as of February 2021. Nearly 25% of videos depicting substances/devices featured branding. Forty-three (18.22%) of the music celebrities who featured substances/devices in their videos received one or more Teen Choice Awards during the study period.
Conclusions.
Popular music celebrities promote substance use in their lyrics and music videos, which are easily accessible to children and adolescents. Some of these celebrities are highly popular and influential among adolescents.
Policy Implications.
Findings support the need to limit promotion of these substances to youth by influencers to reduce substance use and misuse.
INTRODUCTION
Adolescents spend approximately one hour per day watching online videos,1 and daily viewing of online videos has increased two-fold between 2015 and 2019.1 Many adolescents view these videos on YouTube, the most widely used social media platform among youth.2 Thirty-seven percent of adolescents report using YouTube to stream online videos, making it the dominant platform for viewing videos—ahead of Netflix (35%).3 Media firms cite the “wide array of teen-oriented content” as a driving force for YouTube’s popularity among youth, but public health experts have expressed concern about adolescents’ ability to access adult-oriented media content, including the promotion of alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana, and devices used to consume those substances (e.g., hookah). Moreover, with the soaring popularity of brand placement4 as a marketing strategy, adolescents are further exposed to subliminal marketing for specific, celebrity-endorsed alcohol, cigarette product/device, and marijuana brands in music videos on YouTube. Past research shows frequent mentions of substance use in lyrics5,6, visual depictions in music videos,7,8 and brand placement in music videos9,10, raising concerns about the impact of exposure to this content. The portrayal of substance use in music videos has been linked to positive outcome expectations related to image, lifestyle, and sociability among adolescents ages 11-18 years,11 and increased consumption of alcohol, tobacco, and/or marijuana use.12 One study even showed that participants younger than 21 years old with any exposure to e-cigarette product placement or imagery in music videos were more likely to report lifetime e-cigarette use compared with those aged 21 years and older.9 As a result of time spent consuming media—including watching popular music videos—youth are confronted with large amounts of health harming behaviors that may shape their construction of normal and acceptable behaviors. But no studies have compared depictions of substance use in music videos according to the artist’s popularity among adolescents.
Social Cognitive Theory helps to explain the influence of media on adolescent behavior. The theory posits that people learn by observing modeled behavior,13 suggesting viewers identify with and want to be like those they see in the media. Youth may observe their favorite celebrities engaging in harmful behavior without negative consequences and then go on to emulate the unhealthful behaviors depicted. Studies show adolescents are highly sensitive to social cues that indicate popularity (e.g., number of “likes” or views),14 and prefer products endorsed by celebrities.15 In response to this combined power of celebrity influencers and adolescents’ unique susceptibility to peer influence, the Kids Internet Design and Safety (KIDS) Act was proposed in 2020, which would prohibit the promotion of commercial content on websites that involve alcohol, nicotine, or tobacco to children younger than age 16 years, including promotions that involve influencers. One gap of that policy, however, is that it does not include unpaid promotions that are portrayed by influencers, and little is known on how often these unpaid promotions occur on sites like YouTube.
Policy proposals (e.g., the KIDS Act) that aim to reduce adolescents’ exposure to substance use promotions are critical given the existing rates of substance use among youth. Although past-month use of combustible cigarettes among adolescents has declined to a record low of 5% in 2018,16 adolescent use of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS)—including electronic cigarettes, pods, and vape pens—has significantly increased since ENDS products were introduced to the U.S. market in 2007. In 2019, 28% of high school students and 10% of middle school students reported recent use of e-cigarettes (up from <2% in 2011).17 This prevalence equates to over 5 million adolescents using e-cigarettes frequently (20 or more days out of the past 30) and 1 million youth using e-cigarettes daily. There is also an emerging trend of increased vaping of marijuana among adolescents, with 13% of 12th graders in 2018 reporting that they had vaped marijuana in the past 12 months.16 Even higher rates of alcohol consumption have also been found among youth. Alcohol continues to be the most common substance used by adolescents, with 59% of youth having consumed at least some alcohol before completing high school and about 30% reporting that they are current drinkers (consumed alcohol in the previous 30 days).18 Identifying and mitigating environmental risk factors for substance use during adolescence is critical given evidence that substance use habits established during this time period often persist into adulthood and negatively influence long-term health.19 Nearly 90% of adult smokers begin smoking before age 18 years,20 and 35-40% of e-cigarette users begin experimentation during adolescence.21 Furthermore, early initiation of drinking has been linked to increased risk of alcoholism in adults.22 Thus, this developmental period is a critical time to prevent initiation of substance use.
Given adolescents spend roughly 7 hours per week viewing online videos and often media multitask (i.e., engage in more than one media activity at a time), it is vital to understand what youth are being exposed to in videos that are popular among their age group. A recent paper assessing content in hip-hop music videos found a substantial proportion of videos (ranging from 87 out of 197 videos in 2014 to 106 out 225 videos in 2017) contained combustible or e-cigarettes, or smoke or vapor from tobacco and marijuana products.7 The current study builds on extant work by conducting the most comprehensive analysis of music videos to date—comparing the appearance of five types of substances (or devices for substance use) in music videos across six music genres over a seven-year period while also assessing the popularity of music celebrities who promote substance use among adolescents, meaning this study spans the longest amount of time and highest number of substances and genres. We focus on five types of substances or their mode of delivery (e.g., e-cigarettes) that are described by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration as some of the most-used substances by youth and adults.23 Specifically, we analyzed the most popular songs between 2014 and 2020 to: 1) determine the frequency of audio and visual depictions of alcohol, marijuana, cigarettes/cigars, e-cigarettes, and hookah in song lyrics and videos; 2) assess the percent change over the number of years in the appearance of substances and substance use devices in song lyrics and videos; 3) determine the frequency of brand placement of substances and substance use devices in music videos; and 4) determine which substances or substance use devices were depicted in music videos by celebrities in the sample who have won Teen Choice Awards and how often those videos were viewed.
METHODS
The methods for the present study were adapted from previous research that evaluated substance portrayals in Billboard Hot 100 songs.24 The research team aimed to identify the most popular songs between 2014-2020 by using Billboard Year-End. The Hot 100 Year-End Charts rank the year’s most popular songs across all genres using Nielsen Music airplay audience impressions and sales data as well as streaming activity data across multiple online music providers.25 We recorded the song title, artist, genre, and the year the song appeared on the Hot 100 list. We then searched YouTube for the official music video for each song and saved the link to the song in our database. We identified the official song by searching for the artist’s official YouTube channel by examining the number of followers (e.g., official channels have the highest number of followers compared to copycat channels). We then searched for the song name within that channel. We also downloaded the song lyrics for each of the songs in our sample. Genres were defined based on the Billboard 100 categorization (i.e., when searching for Hot 100 songs, each song has a specific genre listed underneath the song title).
After compiling the list of eligible songs, we created a standardized codebook to use when analyzing song lyrics and videos. The codebook included prompts for the research team to document the following: 1) auditory depictions of alcohol, marijuana, combustible cigarettes/cigars, e-cigarettes, or hookah; 2) visual depictions of alcohol, marijuana, combustible cigarettes/cigars, e-cigarettes, or hookah: 3) descriptive information about the videos including number of YouTube views and presence of an explicit warning at the start of the video; 4) assessment of positive or negative portrayal of substances or substance-use devices in videos; and 5) brand placement of substances or substance use devices in videos. We defined negative portrayals as instances where the video was discouraging use of the substance or portraying the substance as uncool or undesirable or portraying the negative consequences of substance use. Positive portrayals included describing or depicting the substance use as cool, desirable, or portraying the consequences as positive (e.g., alcohol use providing confidence in romantic situations). We defined brand placement as the appearance (e.g., a logo) or verbal mention of a brand name. To evaluate the lyrics, coders used the Amazon Music App, which provides the lyrics of millions of songs. Two coders were instructed to review the lyrics for mentions of brand names, formal substance names (e.g., hookah), or slang names for substances (e.g., booze), or descriptions of use (e.g., “get drunk”).
To evaluate the popularity of the music celebrities among adolescents, we searched the official website of the Teen Choice Awards. Established in the US in 1999, the Teen Choice Awards serves as an annual awards show to promote the celebrities and television shows that children and adolescents watch. Based on adolescent viewers’ votes, the show awards the most popular celebrities in music, movies, sports, television, and fashion each year.26 Using the lists of nominees and award winners on the Teen Choice Awards website, we determined which of the celebrities from our sample of music celebrities with Billboard Top 100 songs between 2014-2020 also received one or more Teen Choice Award during the study period. We then determined which, if any, substances or substance use devices were visually depicted in their music videos and how many views were associated with those videos.
Two raters independently analyzed 10% of the songs in our sample to determine how frequently substances or substance use devices appeared in song lyrics or music videos as well as the additional outcomes of interest. After establishing inter-rater reliability using Krippendorf’s alpha > 0.7,27 the raters divided and independently coded the remaining song lyrics/videos. The interrater reliability for each concept in the lyrical analysis was 0.9 for alcohol references; 0.8 for cigarettes, 0.7 for marijuana, and 0.7 for hookah, and 0.8 for e-cigarettes. We used R version 3.6.1. to conduct all analyses. On January 20th, 2021, we gathered the total number of views for each music video. We then quantified the number of song lyrics and videos that featured each substance or substance use device and compared the appearance of each product in the six genres. We next quantified the change in the number of music lyrics or videos featuring substances or substance use devices as a percent change over the years of the study and computed the number of videos that included brand placement by genre and by type of substance. Finally, we calculated the number of music celebrities who promoted substances/devices in their videos who also received Teen Choice Awards for their music during our study period.
RESULTS
The Billboard Hot 100 list only included 99 songs in 2016, resulting in a final sample of 699 songs from 2014-2020. Most songs (n=684) had an official video posted on YouTube as of data collection between November 2019 and February 2021. All videos were accessible to children and adolescents. As of January 20th, 2021, the 684 songs that had a video were collectively viewed more than 148 billion times on YouTube and involved 236 music celebrities (not shown). Across all 699 songs, the majority (n=414; 59.2%) had either lyrical or video depiction of alcohol, marijuana, combustible cigarettes/cigars, e-cigarettes, or hookah, and a sizable proportion (n=144; 20.6%) included both lyrical and video depictions of substances (not shown).
Approximately 1/3 of song lyrics (n=222; 31.8%) included at least one substance depiction. Alcohol appeared in the most lyrics (n=192; 86.5%), followed by marijuana (n=66; 29.7%), combustible cigarettes/cigars (n=34; 15.3%), e-cigarettes (n=1; 0.5%), and hookah (n=1; 0.5%) (Table 1). Most of these lyrical depictions (n=216; 97.3%) portrayed the given substance positively (not shown). Hip-hop/Rap featured the greatest number of lyrical depictions of substances or substance use devices (n=100; 45.1%), followed by pop (n=57; 25.7%), country (n=31; 14.0%), R&B (n=24; 10.8%), dance/electronic (n=10; 4.6%), and rock (n=7; 3.2%).
Table 1:
Depictions of Substance or Substance Use Device in Song Lyrics and Videos by Genre (Lyrics N=699; Videos N=684)
| Alcohol | Marijuana | Combustible Cigarettes/Cigars |
E-cigarettes | Hookah | Total | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lyrics | Video | Lyrics | Video | Lyrics | Video | Lyrics | Video | Lyrics | Video | Lyrics | Video | |
| Hip-hop/Rap | 74 | 100 | 47 | 49 | 13 | 29 | 0 | 8 | 1 | 10 | 100 | 142 |
| Pop | 54 | 88 | 7 | 9 | 11 | 18 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 57 | 98 |
| Country | 30 | 31 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 31 | 31 |
| R&B | 18 | 26 | 11 | 9 | 4 | 9 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 24 | 30 |
| Dance/Electronic | 9 | 18 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 18 |
| Rock | 7 | 8 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 13 |
| Total | 192 | 271 | 66 | 70 | 34 | 64 | 1 | 16 | 1 | 11 | 222 | 332 |
Notes: Row totals should not be summed. If two or more substances or substance use devices appeared in the same song, it was only counted once in the row “Total” cell.
As seen in Table 1, across the 684 songs with videos, approximately half (n=332; 48.5%) depicted one or more type of substance or substance use device, though it was impossible to discern the type of product being consumed in e-cigarette and hookah devices. Alcohol appeared in the most videos (n=271; 81.6%), followed by marijuana (n=70; 21.1%), combustible cigarettes/cigars (n=64; 19.3%), e-cigarettes (n=16; 4.8%), and hookah (n=11; 3.3%). Most of those appearances (n=329; 99.1%) portrayed the products positively (not shown). Just 7 of the 684 videos – Coco by OT Genasis; You Know You Like it by DJ Snake and Aluna George; Bitch Better Have My Money by Rihanna; Swang by Rae Sremmurd; Money by Cardi B; Goodbyes by Post Malone; and Rockstar by Post Malone – included an explicit content warning at the beginning of the video that stated some of the video’s content might not be suitable for all viewers. Of the seven videos, five displayed substantial themes of violence, three displayed nudity, and two displayed illegal stimulants (i.e., cocaine and amphetamine), and one displayed all three categories of explicit content (not shown). During the coding process, one rater identified 11 videos that they perceived to have concerning content. They shared the video links with the other coders and asked, “Do you notice any concerning content?” All coders took notes on the videos and identified the presence of violence, nudity, etc., and agreed it would be worthwhile to report those instances.
Alcohol—the category of substances that appeared in the largest number videos—was featured most frequently in hip-hop/rap (n=100) and pop (n=88) genres, followed by country (n=31), R&B (n=26), dance/electronic (n=18), and rock (n=8) (Table 1). Although alcohol was featured prominently in both pop and hip/hop videos, marijuana was featured almost exclusively in hip-hop/rap. Specifically, marijuana appeared in 49 hip-hop/rap videos while only appearing in 9 R&B videos, 9 pop music videos, 2 rock music videos, 1 dance/electronic music video, and 0 country music videos. Combustible cigarettes/cigars, e-cigarettes, and hookah were all featured most often in hip-hop/rap followed by pop. Specifically, combustible cigarettes/cigars appeared in 29 hip-hop/rap music videos, 18 pop music videos, 9 R&B music videos, 4 rock music videos, 2 dance/electronic music videos, and 2 country music videos. E-cigarettes appeared in 8 hip-hop/rap videos, 4 pop music videos, 3 R&B music videos, 1 dance/electronic music video, and no country or rock music videos. Hookah appeared in 10 hip-hop/rap music videos, 1 pop music video, and no country, R&B, dance/electronic, or rock music videos.
The number of lyrical depictions of substances or substance use devices experienced sharp fluctuations during the study period (Table 2). Across the seven years, alcohol was consistently the most common substance within lyrics. There were sharp declines in lyrical depictions of alcohol between 2014 and 2016 and again between 2017-2018, followed by a steep increase between 2018 and 2020, more than doubling from its lowest point. Marijuana depictions increased somewhat in 2016 but have since re-stabilized. While e-cigarette and hookah depictions have remained relatively stable throughout the years, combustible cigarette/cigar depictions have increased by 700% since 2014 – beginning at just 2 songs and rising to 16 in 2020.
Table 2.
Number of Songs that Include Portrayal of Substances or Substance Use Devices Over Time
| Lyrics | Videos | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | |
| Alcohol | 32 | 27 | 22 | 23 | 19 | 28 | 40 | 42 | 41 | 33 | 34 | 41 | 44 | 35 |
| Marijuana | 10 | 8 | 14 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 9 | 5 | 9 | 14 | 14 | 13 | 10 | 7 |
| Combustible Cigarettes | 2 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 16 | 14 | 9 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 11 | 10 |
| E-Cigarettes | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| Hookah | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
Unlike lyrics, the number of songs with video depiction of substances or substance use devices fluctuated less over time and remained relatively stable during the study period (Table 2). Across the seven years, alcohol was again consistently the most common substance to appear in music videos and was represented more than 2 times as often as any other substance/device at every time point. Initial declines in the number of videos featuring alcohol were followed by increases in 2017- 2019; however, depictions sharply declined again to the lowest point in 2020. Conversely, marijuana started at just 5 videos in 2014 and nearly tripled by 2016 but those representations have subsequently dropped to just 7 videos in 2020. Depictions of combustible cigarettes/cigars declined by more than half during the study period but have increased modestly since the lowest point in 2016. E-cigarettes and hookah have remained relatively low in terms of percent change over the years, and in 2020 did not appear in any music videos.
Of the 332 music videos that depicted substances or substance-use devices, nearly one quarter (n=78; 23.5%) featured branding, with 43 unique brands depicted (Table 3). The majority of branding occurred in Hip-Hop/Rap videos (n=49; 62.8%), followed by pop and country (n=12; 15.4%), R & B (n=4; 5.3%), and dance/electronic (n=1; 1.3%); no branding occurred in rock. Alcohol was the most frequently branded substance in videos (n=71; 91.0%), followed by combustible cigarettes/cigars (n=3; 3.9%), marijuana (n=2; 2.6%), and e-cigarettes and hookah (n=1; 1.3%).
Table 3:
Brand Placement by Genre and Substance or Substance Use Type in Music Videos (n=587)
| Number Videos with Brand Appearances (%) |
Number of Unique Brands Depicted |
|
|---|---|---|
| Genre | ||
| Hip-hop/Rap | 49 (62.82) | 28 |
| Pop | 12 (15.39) | 11 |
| Country | 12 (15.39) | 10 |
| R&B | 4 (5.13) | 3 |
| Dance/Electronic | 1 (1.28) | 0 |
| Rock | 0 (0.00) | 0 |
| Total | 78 | 43 |
| Substance or Substance Use Device | ||
| Alcohol | 71 (91.03) | 37 |
| Marijuana | 3 (3.85) | 2 |
| Combustible Cigarettes/Cigars | 2 (2.56) | 2 |
| E-cigarettes | 1 (1.28) | 1 |
| Hookah | 1 (1.28) | 1 |
| Total | 78 | 43 |
Notes: When the same brand appeared in more than one video it was counted one time in the “Number of Unique Brands” column.
Between 2014-2020 less than one quarter (18.2%) of celebrities that featured substances or substance-use devices in their music videos won a Teen Choice Award (Table 4). The artists with the greatest number of Teen Choice Awards were One Direction (n=20), Ariana Grande (n=12), and Fifth Harmony (n=9). Drake featured substances in the greatest number of videos (n=23), followed by Maroon 5 (n=10), and Nicki Minaj, Taylor Swift, and Ed Sheeran (n=7). Three of these artists also had the most variation in substances and substance-use devices in their videos. Drake videos included all 5 categories (alcohol, marijuana, combustible cigarettes/cigars, e-cigarettes, and hookah) while Nicki Minaj, Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran and Maroon 5 videos included at least two substances or substance-use devices. Finally, across the 43 artists that won Teen Choice Awards during the study period, they had a total of 141 music videos that featured one or more substances and/or substance-use devices, accruing a total of 93,239,718,497 cumulative views on YouTube.
Table 4:
Teen Choice Awards, Substance or Substance Use Depictions in Videos, and Views by Music Celebrity
| Music Celebrity | Number of Teen Choice Awards Between 2014-2020 |
Products Depicted |
Number of Videos Depicting Products |
Number of YouTube Views |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| One Direction | 20 | A | 1 | 304,333,562 |
| Ariana Grande | 12 | A | 4 | 1,805,929,573 |
| Fifth Harmony | 9 | A | 1 | 400,013,288 |
| 5 Seconds of Summer | 8 | A; C | 1 | 157,566,853 |
| Camila Cabello | 8 | A | 3 | 1,230,581,548 |
| Ed Sheeran | 7 | A; C | 7 | 8,770,072,214 |
| Selena Gomez | 6 | A | 3 | 3,233,680,737 |
| Taylor Swift | 5 | A; C | 7 | 5,702,953,331 |
| Justin Bieber | 5 | A; D | 3 | 1,647,680,805 |
| Carrie Underwood | 5 | A | 1 | 109,071,407 |
| Imagine Dragons | 4 | A*; B; C | 3 | 2,486,259,354 |
| Dan + Shay | 4 | A | 3 | 279,766,784 |
| Panic! At the Disco | 4 | A; B | 1 | 53,491,701 |
| Zayn | 4 | A | 1 | 572,571,014 |
| Cardi B | 3 | A; C; E | 6 | 11,905,742,012 |
| Demi Lovato | 3 | A | 2 | 902,321,249 |
| Halsey | 2 | A; B; C | 5 | 1,778,432,833 |
| Kendrick Lamar | 2 | B; C | 4 | 1,185,914,895 |
| Jonas Brothers | 2 | A; D | 3 | 304,822,620 |
| Beyoncé | 2 | A; C | 3 | 1,250,043,093 |
| Calvin Harris | 2 | A | 3 | 3,365,516,132 |
| Charlie Puth | 2 | A | 3 | 7,681,092,106 |
| Iggy Azalea | 2 | A | 2 | 1,505,838,691 |
| Khalid | 2 | A | 1 | 574,790,248 |
| Ellie Goulding | 2 | A | 1 | 256,522,878 |
| Wiz Khalifa | 2 | A | 1 | 4,935,451,809 |
| Drake | 1 | A; B, C; D; E | 23 | 4,515,012,873 |
| Maroon 5 | 1 | A; B; C; E | 10 | 5,786,509,805 |
| Nicki Minaj | 1 | A; B | 7 | 2,594,366,364 |
| Jason Derulo | 1 | A; C | 4 | 1,977,514,835 |
| Sam Hunt | 1 | A; C | 4 | 356,392,632 |
| DJ Khaled | 1 | A; C; D | 3 | 2,491,337,324 |
| The Chainsmokers | 1 | A; C | 3 | 2,889,343,640 |
| Bebe Rexha | 1 | A | 2 | 1,395,545,541 |
| J Balvin | 1 | A; E | 2 | 2,167,879,380 |
| Florida Georgia Line | 1 | A | 2 | 213,681,022 |
| Bruno Mars | 1 | A | 2 | 4,916,855,052 |
| Katy Perry | 1 | A | 1 | 71,583,230 |
| Lady Antebellum | 1 | A | 1 | 28,458,886 |
| Avicii | 1 | A | 1 | 162,880,003 |
| Hozier | 1 | B | 1 | 332,710,837 |
| DNCE | 1 | A | 1 | 366,615,322 |
| Nick Jonas | 1 | A | 1 | 572,571,014 |
Notes:
A=Alcohol, B=Marijuana, C=Combustible cigarettes/cigars???, D=E-cigarettes; E=Hookah
Indicates substance or substance use devise was portrayed negatively in video.
DISCUSSION
This study provides evidence that the lyrics and music videos of popular songs on YouTube promote alcohol, combustible and electronic cigarettes, hookah, and marijuana across six genres of music that were collectively viewed more than 148 billion times on YouTube. Our study reinforces previous findings that hip-hop and rap lyrics often mention alcohol brands and glamorize illicit drug use.28,29 Song lyrics may be particularly powerful in exposing youth to depictions of substances because some mobile apps make it possible to listen to songs on YouTube while being on the move, which may be appealing to youth who are trying to avoid parental supervision of their music choices. Our study builds upon previous research showing alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drugs appear frequently in pop, hip-hop, and rap music videos.7,30 Our data are unique because we capture a wider range of products than previous studies,7,31 compare the prevalence of these product placements across 6 genres of popular music; and harness YouTube viewership data to estimate the amount of exposure generated by music videos.
This study is especially novel because of its inclusion of Teen Choice Awards data. In our sample, 43 (18.22%) of the music celebrities with Billboard Top 100 music videos featuring one or more substance or substance-use devices, won Teen Choice Awards during the study period. This indicates their high popularity among youth. Thus, their status as popular “influencers” may enable them to reach a high number of viewers for their music videos. Those 43 celebrities promoted substances in 141 videos that were viewed over 93 billion times on YouTube. With nearly a quarter (n=78;23.5%) of videos featuring substances/devices also including branding, the power of product placement becomes yet another additive force. This is especially concerning when considering the persuasive effects of celebrities15 and adolescents’ preferences for celebrity-endorsed products.32 Given adolescents’ unique development stage (e.g., seeking role models to mimic for identity development),33,34 the overlap between promotion of health-harming products, celebrity endorsements, and product placement is concerning for public health.
Consistent with other studies, music videos in our sample had a high prevalence of alcohol appearances. Past research has found approximately 35-45% of music videos to contain alcohol imagery.8 In our study, alcohol was featured in 271 videos (39.5%), and those videos generated hundreds of millions of views for these alcohol product placements. Another concerning finding was that alcohol was promoted similarly in hip-hop/rap music videos and pop music videos, but other products like marijuana were featured almost exclusively in hip-hop/rap music videos. Together, these findings suggest that viewers of hip-hop/rap videos are exposed to images and branding that promote consumption of alcohol, marijuana, and tobacco at higher rates than other genres. What makes this consequential is the fact that hip-hop is now the most popular genre of music, eclipsing both pop and rock.35 Consequently, the impacts of normalizing and tacitly promoting substance use by music celebrities are far reaching, spanning multiple demographic groups.
Our study extends previous research on the portrayal of e-cigarettes in music videos and reinforces the need for policy solutions to address e-cigarette use among youth. Allem et al. identified 29 music videos with almost 1.5 billion views in which KandyPens appeared.36 KandyPens is a leading brand of vape products with a history of collaboration with influential artists including A$AP Rocky and DJ Khaled. The brand also has a history of violating state laws on youth marketing of tobacco products.37 In our study, only 16 of the sampled videos portrayed e-cigarettes, but those 16 videos received over six billion views and 1 music video contained explicit branding for KandyPens 24K, highlighting the considerable reach of pro-e-cigarette messaging—especially among leading brands—among music celebrities who are popular among youth.
The federal minimum age for the purchase of tobacco products (including e-cigarettes) was recently raised from age 18 to 21 years, yet most tobacco use initiates before the age of 18 years, and additional policies are needed to target adolescent use. Our study also reinforces the findings of Knutzen et al. (2018) that alcohol and combustible and e-cigarette portrayals are high in hip-hop music videos.7 Compared to previous studies on this topic,5-11 our study is unique because of the large number of substances evaluated, the long range of years, and—most unique—includes comparisons across six music genres.
This study has several limitations. First, we cannot conclude from the videos whether the substances being consumed via hookah and e-cigarettes were tobacco, marijuana, or vapor. Capturing hookah and e-cigarettes are important, however, because they are often used for smoking tobacco or marijuana. Even though marijuana use among adults is legal in some states in the U.S., it is not legal for minors, and exposure to marijuana in popular music videos may entice youth to use marijuana illegally. The appearance of these substances and devices in music videos may serve as a cue to consume those products,38 and signal that smoking is a social norm.29 Other studies have shown, however, that the mere portrayal of such products can serve as a cue to consume regardless of the brand name.39,40 We also want to acknowledge this it is not possible to definitely know if viewers of the music videos gave visual attention the content as videos could have been played in the background or while multitasking. However, we coded for both lyric and video depictions in an effort to reduce any bias introduced by modality. Another limitation is only one coder segmented the videos into smaller increments of time to ensure content was not overlooked and ensure comprehensive coding. The raters were able to achieve acceptable interrater reliability, which may mitigate concerns about failing to have both coders segment the videos. Because the viewers of these YouTube videos vary in age and geographic location, it is unclear how generalizable the findings would be in specific countries where the music genres or artists are more or less popular. Furthermore, we aren’t aware of studies that have conceptualized Teen Choice Award winners as influencers, but based on media discussions about the overlaps of influencers and celebrities,41 the Teen Choice Award-winning celebrities would be considered influencers. Our study did not examine the social media reach of the Teen Choice Award-winning celebrities, but more research should examine how many of these celebrities encourage their social media followers to view videos featuring the substances in our sample. Finally, we do not know how many of the YouTube views include adolescents versus adults. Given adolescents report heavy use of YouTube to watch videos and have nominated many of the music celebrities in our sample for Teen Choice Awards, it is critical to address substance use promotion in popular music videos. Future studies should examine the extent to which disclosures or warning statements may help alert parents to the inappropriate content in videos. Simultaneously, studies should examine whether such warning statements would have backfire effects42 that made youth even more interested in the substances because they may perceive the warnings as thrilling.
The findings from this study have implications for the KIDS Act, which proposes to prohibit the promotion of commercial content on websites that involve alcohol, nicotine, or tobacco to children younger than age 16 years, including promotions that involve influencers. One limitation of the KIDS Act proposal is it does not include unpaid product placements or portrayals of unbranded products—the policy should expand to include any health-harming products portrayed by influencers. Taken together, the combination of celebrity endorsements, product placement for alcohol, cigarettes, and features like auto-play may function like a perpetual stream of advertising for health-harming products. It is also concerning that we as a society promote and glamorize e-cigarettes to youth, and then penalize them for using it. Fifteen states, for example, have policies that penalize minors with civil penalties, misdemeanors, summary offenses, petty offenses, fines, community service work, and mandatory educational/cessation programming for e-cigarette purchase, use, or possession.43
PUBLIC HEALTH IMPLICATIONS.
The depiction of alcohol, combustible and electronic cigarettes, hookah, and marijuana in the lyrics and music videos of popular songs is a public health concern. The videos in our sample that featured those substances were collectively viewed 148 billion times on YouTube and featured exposure to 43 unique substance and substance-use devices brands, indicating that these videos can function as powerful promotional tools for these products. Given some of the music celebrities in our data have also been nominated for Teen Choice Awards, public health officials should work with the Federal Trade Commission to reduce the promotion of these products through music videos on YouTube44 or acknowledge the presence of these products by requiring influencers to include disclosure statements regarding substance portrayals.45 Furthermore, public health officials should continue using peer crowds to target subcultures of adolescents, especially to target at-risk groups who identify with certain music genres.
Footnotes
Disclosure Statement
The authors report no interests to declare.
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