A new take on sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll

These days, there is a decidedly anti-alcohol message streaming through mainstream music, fueled by a cadre of young, talented — if not confused, even dysfunctional at times — female songsters.

That’s just plain weird.

For decades, since old-style innocence died with Camelot in the early 1960s, sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll have been married in an awful, yet seemingly indivisible, threesome. Now, in today’s youth, we see the seams slowly fraying in this too often tragic partnership. That’s my hope, at least.

Once upon a time, hippie counterculture was all the rage. The idea was to check out by checking into your local commune and curling up beside a bong to take a toke and get lost in the psychedelic rock of the Grateful Dead. As a college student in the late 1980s, I was still meeting Deadheads who wanted nothing more than to get stoned and follow Jerry Garcia & Co. around the country from concert to concert, staying wasted for as long as humanly possible.

In the 1970s, young people got high on cocaine or heroin as the disco ball spun above them. What folks saw in skin-tight polyester, I’ll never understand. Anyway ...

In the 1980s, the nation was coping with alcohol, marijuana, heroin, cocaine and then crack cocaine. In the 1990s, the drug of choice became ecstasy. Throughout, much of rock and pop celebrated substance abuse, with minor exceptions, of course.

Then along came “American Idol.” On Sept. 4, 2002, Kelly Clarkson was crowned the show’s first queen. I figured she’d never make it past her first album. What did I know? She was nice, the girl next door, a waitress with a gift for singing, but without a larger-than-life persona — no skeletons lurking in the closet, no outlandish outfits. She was one of us.

Clarkson turned 21 during “American Idol’s” first season. At the time, she was asked in an interview, “Are you looking forward to turning 21 and being legal?”

Her unexpected reaction: “I was a cocktail waitress, and it was funny because everybody used to make fun of me because I’m not big on the whole drinking thing. I’ve tasted a shot before, but I don’t like it, so I don’t do it. I don’t like the whole party scene so much. I love Blockbuster nights with my friends.”