The average lifespan for pop stars is 25 years shorter than normal

by Tyler Munro

October 27, 2014

0

0

0

0

0

Email this article to a friend

At a certain point, the 27 Club started to feel real. With a list of names as diverse as it is long, the likes of Robert Johnson, Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, and more recently Amy Winehouse have all succumbed to themselves three years short of 30.

Psychology professor Diana Kenny decided to see why that is, and her results as published on The Conversation were stunning on a much wider scale. To start, she compiled as massive list of rockstars who died from all popular genres between 1950 and June of this year. From those 12,665 artists, she immediately noted that more than 90 per cent of them were male, and from there, discovered that popular music scene is “toxic” and “needs rehabilitation.”

It’s hard to argue with her, too, as a deeper look at Kenny’s findings show that a popular musician’s lifespan is as many as 25 years shorter than the average.

Accidental death rates were between five and 10 times greater. Suicide rates were between two and seven times greater; and homicide rates were up to eight times greater than the US population.

Kenny says that the music industry needs to consider to better assist musicians in distress.

“At the very least, those who make their livings from these young people need to learn to recognize early signs of emotional distress, crisis, depression and suicidality,” she writes, “and to put some support systems in place to provide the necessary assistance and care.”

Tags: Music, News, Amy Winehouse, Jimi Hendrix, Nirvana

0

0

0

0

0

Email this article to a friend