CULTURAS IN VITRO
High Style: Writing under the influence.
In 1819, when Sir Walter Scott read the proofs of "The Bride of Lammermoor," which he had written while taking laudanum, "he claimed that he did not recognise a single character, incident or conversation found in the book."
This is not to say that our decades-long recreational-drug binge has had no effect on the arts. It might not have had much effect on literature, but there is one art form that has been shaped from top to bottom by drugs, and that would not exist in anything like its current form without them: music. The effect of drugs and the culture of drugs permeate the story of popular music.