Jimi Hendrix overdosed on barbiturates at 27. Janis Joplin died of a heroin overdose at 27. Kurt Cobain ended his life at 27. Brian Jones drowned at 27, and Amy Winehouse succumbed to alcohol poisoning at the same age. These incredibly influential musicians revolutionized genres and shaped music history, only to die tragically at 27. Their untimely deaths gave rise to the myth of the “27 Club,” an idea immortalized by Howard Sounes in his book on the subject.
However, the 27 Club isn’t real.
Dianna Theodora Kenny, a psychology and music professor at the University of Sydney, conducted an extensive study of 11,054 musicians who died between 1950 and 2010. Her research revealed that just 1.3% of these musicians died at age 27, with more dying at 28. In fact, 56 is the most common age of death for musicians. Statistically, there’s no evidence to support the 27 Club myth—Otis Redding, for example, died at 26.
Interestingly, the myth highlights another of Kenny’s findings: musicians who die young often belong to newer genres. While musicians from older genres like blues, jazz, and country tend to have lifespans comparable to the general population, those in newer genres such as rap, hip-hop, and punk face significantly shorter lives.
Kenny’s analysis shows that music genre is a stronger predictor of cause of death than gender or age. As she writes, “Music genre was associated with distinct causes of mortality, more so than gender or age… This suggests that once someone is inducted into the popular music industry, effects of sex and age on mortality may be masked by genre ‘membership’ and its accompanying lifestyle.”
While the 27th year isn’t to blame for the loss of iconic musicians, their genres and the lifestyles associated with them certainly play a role in these heartbreaking trends.
