The analysis illustrates how musicians use alcohol and other drugs for a variety of purposes, including relaxing, achieving the proper mood, heightening musical creativity, and relieving boredom. These musicians were also fully aware of the negative aspects of drug use, particularly as it related to their musical performance. The findings suggested an important association between the meanings and uses of various substances and group characteristics, such as cohesiveness and ideology. The data suggest a correlation between substance abuse, micro-level problems of individual and collective presentation of self, and macro-level constraints of the social organization of the popular music industry. The result is that musicians' definitions and uses of various drugs are not fixed in time or space, but shift as individuals and groups move to different points in their professional socialization. This study demonstrates the idea that the definition and use of alcohol and other drugs by people in so-called marginal professions is connected to the clash of other social products and forces. 4 notes and 49 references