We’re all familiar with the infamous 27 Club, a collection of popular and iconic musicians who all eerily died at the age of 27. Alumni include Doors frontman Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Brian Jones, Kurt Cobain, and more recently, Amy Winehouse. However, as is often the case, it’s just one of those spooky coincidences that falls apart when subjected to scientific scrutiny, right?

Well, maybe not. While a 2011 study published in the British Medical Journal concluded that there was no heightened risk of death for musicians at the age of 27, a new study conducted by Dianna Kenny, Professor of Psychology and Music at the University of Sydney, suggests musicians do generally die younger than most folks.

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As Prof. Kenny writes in The Conversation, her research indicates that pop and rock stars, both male and female, are likely to die up to 25 years earlier than the rest of their community, and it’s not just because of the old “sex, drugs, and rock and roll” cliche.

As misfortune would have it, the chances of accidental death for popular musicians are between five and 10 times greater, suicide rates are between two and seven times greater, and even homicide rates spike when you make music than simply listen to it, with chances of being murdered eight times greater for musos.

Prof. Kenny’s dataset consisted of US statistics, which she used to compare deaths in the general community to those of musicians who died between 1950 and June 2014. The musicians sampled were predominantly (90 percent) male, but spread across a diverse range of genres, taking in everything from rock and roll and country, to electro and hip-hop.

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However, Prof. Kenny’s study isn’t all bad news. According to her figures, deaths by accident for musicians peaked during the 1960s, while deaths by homicide and suicide both peaked in the 1990s. Overall, life expectancy for musos is at its highest since the 1950s, with males expected to live until their late ’50s and females until their early ’60s.

While this is still considerably less than the general population, Prof. Kenny says this can be ameliorated if the pop music “scene” moves to provide boundaries and to “mode and expect acceptable behaviour”, in lieu of promoting outrageous, aggressive, and destructive behaviours in its stars.

According to Prof. Kenny, “Those who make their livings from these young people need to learn to recognise early signs of emotional distress, crisis, depression and suicidality and to put some support systems in place to provide the necessary assistance and care.”

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