Forever 27 Club

The 27 Club is a notional roll of remembrance, celebrating popular musicians who died at the age of twenty-seven. It originated with an unsupported claim of a ‘statistical spike’ for the death of musicians at that age, but this has been repeatedly disproved by research.

It remains a cultural meme, dramatising the early deaths of certain musical celebrities, noted for their high-risk lifestyles. The ‘club’ is generally taken to include Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse. Many other names are controversially put forward for inclusion, but as there is no official membership for the group, these claims and counter-claims are purely discursive.

The 27 Club is a list of popular musicians, artists or actors that have died at age twenty seven, often as a result of drug and alcohol abuse, or violent means such as homicide, suicide, or transportation-related accidents. The deaths of several twenty-seven-year-old popular musicians between 1969 and 1971 led to the belief that deaths are more common at this age. Statistical studies have failed to find any unusual pattern of musician deaths at this age, comparing it to equally small increases at ages 25 and 32, with a 2011 BMJ study noting instead that young adult musicians have a higher death rate than the rest of the young adult population, concluding "Fame may increase the risk of death among musicians, but this risk is not limited to age 27."

The "club" has been repeatedly cited in music magazines, journals and the daily press. Several exhibitions have been devoted to the idea, as well as novels, films and stage plays. There have been many different theories and speculations about the causes of such early deaths and their possible connections. Cobain and Hendrix biographer Charles R. Cross wrote, four years before the BMJ study was published, "The number of musicians who died at 27 is truly remarkable by any standard. [Although] humans die regularly at all ages, there is a statistical spike for musicians who die at 27."

Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison all died at the age of 27 between 1969 and 1971. At the time, the coincidence gave rise to some comment, but it was not until the death of Kurt Cobain, about two and a half decades later, that the idea of a "27 Club" began to catch on in public perception.

...
Wikipedia