Blame it on the music

Editor -In response to Ioana Vlad's news story about infertility,¹ I think that this problem exists all around the world, including Romania. In the United Kingdom, obesity might be the result of the consumption of industrialised food, but not only Western culture has problems with alcohol. Heavy drinking is also common among youngsters in former communist countries, where counterfeit alcoholic drinks are cheap and appear a fun way to pass the time to young unemployed people.

Apart from economics and lack of educational campaigns against drinking, popular culture also has a huge negative impact. At parties, listening to "manele"-songs which are a combination of folk, pop, and oriental music-is fashionable. The lyrics are mainly about the beauty of drinking: "Empty your glass 99 times," and "Drink when you're sad." They also encourage multiple sexual partners: "it isn't hip if you don't sleep around, showing how macho you are," and "Like I do it with 1000 women."

When 15 year olds are asked what kind of music they listen to, they tend to reply "manele." Children aged 4 also sing explicit sexual lyrics because their parents play this music at home. This kind of music influences today's youth.

1. Vlad I. UK youth to be "most infertile in the history of mankind." studentBMJ 2004;12:5. (January.)

Editor -In response to Oana Catar, I do not think that you can blame music as the sole contributing factor leading to increased consumption of alcohol, obesity, and drug misuse in many societies. I think what creates this situation is a complex mixture of factors. Among these I would include the media; films; the behaviour of famous people or teenage idols who take drugs and drink lots of alcohol; an increasingly individualistic society, which brings more loneliness into people's life; the influence of friends or the need to integrate in groups and be "cool"; financial problems and family problems-high rates of divorce and high incidences of domestic violence; poor misdirected health education, which fails to raise awareness; a lack of a value system; and also individual factors like emotional instability.

Increasing consumption of alcohol, obesity, and sexual behaviour is an important problem that needs a multidisciplinary and multistaged approach to buck the trend. This should involve all the environments that influence youngsters-family, friends, school, youth organizations, and so on.