The 27 Club When Kurt Cobain was found dead, his mother, Wendy O’Connor, said, “Now he’s gone and joined that stupid club. I told him not to join that stupid club.” The 27 Club is the name given to popular musicians who died at the age of 27, often resulting from drug or alcohol abuse, or violent factors such as suicide or homicide. The number of musicians who have died at this age have raised suspicions that premature deaths at this general age are unusually common. Although death is recurrent at all ages, “There is a statistical spike for musicians who die at 27,” writes Cobain and Hendrix biographer Charles R. Cross. However, though the sampled musicians faced an increased death rate in their 20s and 30s, there is no actual factor which
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Based on her experience in psychology, Ms. Kenny says the music industry often fails to provide enough emotional support or guidance to vulnerable young people coming into the field, many of whom are from broken homes or have experienced some degree of emotional disruption. “As they are climbing the ladder to stardom they dream of being at the peak and that all of their psychological problems will somehow be relieved by adoration and squillions of dollars,” she says. “What they actually come to is a sense of emptiness and incredibly demanding lifestyle, where everybody is telling them what to do.” Just why do the musicians die at such a young age? In a study by Dr. Arnold M. Ludwig, a psychiatrist at the University of Kentucky Medical, he quotes “Artists and writers experience two to three times the rate of psychosis, suicide attempts, mood disorders, and substance abuse than do comparably successful people in business, science, and public …show more content…
Kenny’s study of cause of death by musicians, some of the results are hardly surprising. For example, hip-hop artists are much more likely to be murdered than those in other genres. The oldest genres - blue, country, and jazz – have the highest rate of musicians succumbing to heart-related condition and cancer. And punk and metal are, by massive margins, the styles in which musicians are most likely to suffer accidental deaths (which includes overdoses and crashes. Metal, too, has an issue with suicide: almost one in five dead metal musicians took their own life, whereas the God-fearing folk of gospel are the least likely to kill
Based on her experience in psychology, Ms. Kenny says the music industry often fails to provide enough emotional support or guidance to vulnerable young people coming into the field, many of whom are from broken homes or have experienced some degree of emotional disruption. “As they are climbing the ladder to stardom they dream of being at the peak and that all of their psychological problems will somehow be relieved by adoration and squillions of dollars,” she says. “What they actually come to is a sense of emptiness and incredibly demanding lifestyle, where everybody is telling them what to do.” Just why do the musicians die at such a young age? In a study by Dr. Arnold M. Ludwig, a psychiatrist at the University of Kentucky Medical, he quotes “Artists and writers experience two to three times the rate of psychosis, suicide attempts, mood disorders, and substance abuse than do comparably successful people in business, science, and public …show more content…
Kenny’s study of cause of death by musicians, some of the results are hardly surprising. For example, hip-hop artists are much more likely to be murdered than those in other genres. The oldest genres - blue, country, and jazz – have the highest rate of musicians succumbing to heart-related condition and cancer. And punk and metal are, by massive margins, the styles in which musicians are most likely to suffer accidental deaths (which includes overdoses and crashes. Metal, too, has an issue with suicide: almost one in five dead metal musicians took their own life, whereas the God-fearing folk of gospel are the least likely to kill