Mixing Music With Self-Control  PRO

MIXING MUSIC WITH SELF-CONTROL

James Schaefer of the University of Minnesota did a ten-year study of a bar in Missoula, Montana. (He followed it up with a three-year study of 65 bars around Minneapolis.) His startling conclusion: country-western tunes and alcohol go together.

He found that the lyrics tend to be sad laments about love gone sour, personal freedom, and solace found in the bottle. "Particularly powerful drinking inducements" are songs that "celebrate heavy drinking by making heroes out of drunkards."

Dr. Schaefer heads the University of Minnesota drug and alcohol abuse program. His studies found "slower music went with faster drinking," adding, "Hard drinkers prefer listening to slower-paced, wailing, lonesome, self-pitying music."

His conclusion: "No doubt about it, country and western can be a prescription for trouble among people with little self-control."

If you don’t believe this is true consider the following top ten list of real song titles and lines from Country Western Songs. (Read like reverse order)

Top 10 List

1) If My Nose Were Full of Nickels, I’d Blow It All On You

2) I’d Rather Have A Bottle In Front Of Me Than A Frontal Lobotomy

3) If Love Were Oil, I’d Be A Quart Low

4) My Wife Ran Off With My Best Friend, And I Sure Do Miss Him

5) If The Phone Don’t Ring, Baby, You’ll Know It’s Me

6) I’m...