Popular music, drug

It is no coincidence that many of the artists who combine a Poe-like reflection on technologies of communication as worldmaking devices with the presentation of science fictional scenarios frequently make use of mind altering substances as plot devices, and otherwise, as Poe notoriously also did. A drug, hke other of Poe s mechanisms of displacement, is a medium that alters perceptions and shifts the parameters of the user s world. Perhaps because of the reports of alcoholism and opiate dependency that surround Poe, he has been a crypto-reference for various strands of experimental popular music from the 1960s onward. While Byron seems to be the main prototype for Jimi Hendrix s flamboyant persona and Georgian ruffles, his frequent journeys to outer space ( EXP, Third Stone from the Sun ), identification with aliens, and excursions undersea and to the poles ( 1983 A Merman... 

As an amphetamine. Ecstasy was already banned in the UK before it became popular in the late 1980s via the House music scene which had developed in America and Ibiza. Ecstasy was used as a stimulant drug to help users stay up all night and to promote empathy and communication between people. It quickly became an important part of the dance scene. 

Tenamfetamine ( ecstasy, MDMA methylenedioxymethamphetamine) is structurally related to mescaline as well as to amphetamine. It was originally patented in 1914 as an appetite suppressant and has recently achieved widespread popularity as a dance drug at rave parties (where it is deemed necessary to keep pace with the beat and duration of the music popular names reflect the appearance of the tablets and capsules and include White Dove, White Burger, Red and Black, Denis the Menace). Tenamfetamine stimulates central and peripheral a-and p-adrenoceptors thus the pharmacological effects are compounded by those of physical exertion, dehydration and heat. In susceptible individuals (poor metabolisers who exhibit the CYP450 2D6 polymorphism) a severe and fatal idiosyncratic reaction may occur with fulminant hyperthermia, convulsioirs, disseminated intravascular coagulation, rhabdomyolysis, and acute renal and hepatic failure. Treatment includes activated charcoal, diazepam for convulsions, P-blockade (atenolol) for tachycardia, a-blockade (phentolamine) for hypertension, and dantrolene if the rectal temperature exceeds 39°C. 

For those who preferred to buy their marihuana from independent peddlers on the street, the favorite places to smoke the drug were dance halls where both musicians and those who listened to their music lit up. Theaters were another popular spot to relax in. 

ECSTASY" (also known as "XTC" or "E") is the "street" name of one member of a family of amphetamine related drugs which first became popular in the "rave" or modem dance music culture across Europe in the 1980s (Table 1). Its chemical name is 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) closely related drugs include methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA) and methylene-dioxyethylamphetamine (MDEA). The chemical structure of this series of drugs and their relationship to older better known stimulants of abuse, amphetamine and methamphetamine, is shown in Figure 1. 

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