Posted on 01/17/2008 12:12:28 PM PST by USFRIENDINVICTORIA
In recent months, the sporting world has been rocked by a steroid scandal that has tarnished the achievements of some of baseball's biggest stars. This week, a new investigation into illegal steroids is threatening to destroy the image of yet another of our pop cultural pillars: rock stars.
A report in the Albany, N.Y., Times Union on Sunday linked a number of prominent performers, among them rappers 50 Cent and Timbaland, to a Florida osteopath facing a federal indictment for illegally selling prescription drugs, including steroids and human growth hormone (HGH). According to the Times Union, these drugs could minimize the effects of ageing, thus helping today's young singers -- think Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera -- maintain teenage complexions and rock-solid abs into their 40s.
We hope that the music world will move quickly to clean up its act. As in sports, it is unacceptable that some musicians would seek to gain advantage over their competitors by taking performance-enhancing drugs. It goes without saying that anyone guilty of taking steroids -- or any illegal drug, for that matter -- should have their gold and platinum records revoked. Furthermore, billboard charts should include an asterisk next to their names. Drugs have never had any place in the rock world. And we must keep it that way.
An investigation should be conducted: We must get "behind the music," as it were. An inquiry may very well shatter our image of the clean-living, well-mannered, public-serving rock star. But such disclosure is necessary for the long-term health of the music world. Unless we can be sure that music stars are clean, how can we possibly keep looking on performers such as Ms. Spears and Mr. Cent as role models?
The ones they name sure aren’t rockers, so it ain’t so
That’s true. They would be no where, without MTV — music to look at.
I wanna see Keith Richards on ‘roids.
...how can we possibly keep looking on performers such as Ms. Spears and Mr. Cent as role models?
If they could live that long.
It doesn't destroy their image to me, it reinforces it.
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