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Songs about Addictions

The monkey on your back. The jones. These are songs about the neat little stimulus-reward short circuit designed into the human brain and how it can combine with any vaguely pleasant sensation to form a constant destructive cycle. Addiction is a subject that comes up a lot in music, as the rock star lifestyle both encourages substance abuse and doesn't leave a lot of room for wholesome pastimes like mountain climbing instead.

Is there anything we can't get addicted to? First they outlaw drugs, but we just turn to alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine. Failing that, we get addicted to gambling, love, or sex. If you remove that, we can turn obsessive-compulsive and get addicted to mopping the floor. Humans don't have a monkey on their back; we are the monkeys, and our monkeys minds are ever seeking a fix from whatever sweet sugar we find.


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