The Use of Alcohol and Cannabis in Non-Professional Rock Bands in Finland

Using interviews and observations, this article analyzes the practices and meanings of drinking and cannabis use among 32 Finnish non-professional young adult rock musicians, mostly male, in the late J 990s. The practices of drinking and marijuana use are described in certain social contexts, thus showing how substance use and music-making coexist and intertwine. The results illustrate a tight and complex, yet contradictory, connection between music-making and substances. Drinking is experienced as an unavoidable part of amateur band life. The article also presents a brief review of studies of substance use among popular musicians and of research on non-professional rock musicians. Although these two fields have remained relatively separate, it is argued that a closer connection between them would provide new, more complex insights into the everday life of musicians and into gendered processes in rock music.