Marijuana Playlist
As California prepares to vote on a ballot initiative essentially legalizing marijuana, The Atlantic looks at the pop music—from Louis Armstrong to Ben Harper—that found peace with the drug.
“Pop music brought Mary Jane to mass consciousness. And through generations of jazz, folk, rock, reggae, country, and rap, pop has played a massive role in winning mainstream acceptance for the drug. To see this dramatic shift at work, one only need take a tour of marijuana-themed music, of pop songs about pot, tunes about toking, compositions about the chronic, if you will. Or even if you won’t. We start, we do with most trends in American popular music, with Louis Armstrong.”
