Tag: history

Opium, Morphine, Heroin

Illegal Drugs: Opium, Morphine, Heroin Pt. 1

The recent awarding of Heath Ledger a posthumous Oscar for The Dark Knight made me think about his accidental death from “acute intoxication by the combined effects of oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam and doxylamine” as reported by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of New York. This made me think of how deeply the use, and abuse, of opiods have become a part of global and popular culture: in history, art, music.

This three part documentary (Part 2, Part 3), which first appeared on the History Channel as “Hooked: Illegal Drugs”, shows the history of Opium and how it evolved into Morphine and Heroin, from a completely legal substance to an illegal one.

120 Years Of Music Chart History

Also known as The Whitburn Project:

For the last ten years, obsessive record collectors in Usenet have been working on the Whitburn Project — a huge undertaking to preserve and share high-quality recordings of every popular song since the 1890s. To assist their efforts, they’ve created a spreadsheet of 37,000 songs and 112 columns of raw data, including each song’s duration, beats-per-minute, songwriters, label, and week-by-week chart position. It’s 25 megs of OCD, and it’s awesome.

Don’t miss the follow-up on One-Hit Wonders and Pop Longevity.