Music to die for: how genre affects popular musicians' life expectancy
AUTHOR
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Dianna Theadora Kenny
Professor of Psychology and Music at University of Sydney
DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
Dianna Theadora Kenny receives funding from the Australia Research Council and the Australia Council for the Arts
UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY EVENTS
MORE EVENTS
Music genre is associated with distinct causes of mortality, more so than sex or age. Surian Soosay, CC BY-SADo all popular musicians live hard and fast, take risks and die young?
This article is the third in a series examining mortality in popular musicians.
To recap, the first article examined longevity, suicide, murder and accidental death rates in pop musicians compared with population data from the US. As expected, longevity was significantly reduced in pop musicians, who also had higher rates of suicide, homicide and accidental death.
The second article explored the “myth” of the so-called 27 club, explaining how this idea emerged and why it has taken root in the public imagination.
In this article, I’d like to look at whether membership of different music genres is associated with different risks of early death and different causes of death.
The chart below plots genres over time (oldest to youngest genres), showing the average age of death of popular musicians by genre and gender against life expectancy (LE) for US males and females born in the same year.
Musicians from the older genres – blues, jazz (including bebop and dixieland), country (including country and western, boogie woogie, honky tonk and bluegrass), and gospel (including spiritual and Christian rock) – enjoyed, on average, similar lifespans as those from the US population with the same year of birth and gender.
The next group – R&B (including doo wop and soul), pop, folk (including ballad and polka) and world music – had lower life expectancies compared with the US population.
Thereafter, the gap between population lifespans and average age of death for the more recent genres – rock (including rockabilly), electronic (including experimental, techno, disco, and funk), punk, metal, rap and hip hop – widens.
This pattern reflects, to some extent, a confound in the data: musicians who are dying youngest belong to newer genres (electronic, punk, metal,rap,hip-hop) that have not existed as long as genres such as jazz, country, gospel and blues. Consequently, they have not had the same opportunity to live a full lifespan.
However, this is not the whole answer.
The main causes of death for musicians from different genres
The table below shows that musicians from different genres have different rates of death from different causes of death.
For male musicians across all genres, accidental death (including all vehicular incidents and accidental overdose) accounted for almost 20% of all deaths. But accidental death for rock musicians was higher than this (24.4%) and for metal musicians higher still (36.2%).
Suicide accounted for almost 7% of all deaths in the total sample. However, for punk musicians, suicide accounted for 11% of deaths; for metal musicians, a staggering 19.3%. At just 0.9%, gospel musicians had the lowest suicide rate of all the genres studied.
Tupac Shakur performing live in 1996, the same year he was fatally shot. Wikimedia CommonsMurder accounted for 6.0% of deaths across the sample, but was the cause of 51% of deaths in rap musicians and 51.5% of deaths for hip hop musicians, to date. This could be due to these genres’ strong associations with drug-related crime and gang culture.
Heart–related fatalities accounted for 17.4% of all deaths across all genres, while 28% of blues musicians died of heart-related causes. Similarly, the average percentage of deaths accounted for by cancer was 23.4%. Older genres such as folk (32.3%) and jazz (30.6%) had higher rates of fatal cancers than other genres.
In the case of the newer genres, it’s worth pointing out that members of these genres have not yet lived long enough to fall into the highest-risk ages for heart- and liver-related illnesses. Consequently, they had the lowest rates of death in these categories.
So, what can we conclude about musicians and music genre membership?
This study highlights the different mortality profiles of musicians belonging to different genres of popular music, and cautions against treating the population of popular musicians as homogeneous.
Music genre was associated with distinct causes of mortality, more so than gender or age (not presented here). 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.
Importantly, because this was a quantitative study of dead musicians and our aim was to gather population data to identify occupational hazards in the pop music world, I can only speculate here about the underlying causes of these patterns in mortality.
Sid Vicious from the Sex Pistols in 1978. He died the following year, at 21, having overdosed on the heroin his mother had procured. Chicago Art Department/ Wikimedia CommonsThese figures likely represent a combination of factors inherent in the popular music industry (such as the ubiquitous presence of alcohol and other substances of addiction, irregular hours, touring, high levels of stress, performance anxiety) and the vulnerability that many young musicians bring with them into their profession from adverse childhood experiences. Add to this the subcultural values and philosophies in distinct music genres with which young musicians become imbued, and you have a complex, multi-faceted picture of musician mortality.
Other studies have reported similar significantly-reduced life expectancy in popular musicians from the newer genres compared with matched general populations. Mortality rates were between two and three times higher for popular musicians than matched population data. The median ages of popular musician death in the two Bellis studies (links above) were 41.78 and 45.2 years respectively, which closely aligned with my findings.
Many musicians from younger genres – rock, electronic, punk, metal, rap, and hip hop – appear unlikely to live long enough to acquire the illnesses of middle and old age.
Subsequent research decades hence, when the newer genres have matured sufficiently to potentially contain members with ages spanning population life expectancies, may confirm the findings and tentative conclusions drawn from this series of studies.
See also:
Stairway to hell: life and death in the pop music industry
The 27 Club is a myth: 56 is the bum note for musicians
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November 18 2014The 27 Club is a myth: 56 is the bum note for musiciansNovember 16 2014Health Check: is controlled crying the best way to get baby to sleep?October 26 2014Stairway to hell: life and death in the pop music industryJuly 11 2011All right on the night? Music performance anxiety is more common than you thinkRELATED ARTICLES
Join the conversation
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Chris E
Who Knows
That's not what line charts are used for...
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Dianna Theadora Kenny
Professor of Psychology and Music at University of Sydney
In reply to Chris EHi Chris
Tut! Tut! We all know this...let's accept it as "journalistic flair" and poetic licence!
Dianna
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Clif Marsiglio
Institutional Research at Indiana University
In reply to Dianna Theadora KennyRead moreDoes journalist flair also allow for not labeling of axes? I mean, what is Average Male / Female Life Expectancy measured against? At least this portion is what line graphs are for! I might have been a dumbass touring musician for a decade, but my research methods in my PhD program would have thrown me out on my ass for something like this! I just think it could have been far clearer and STILL been just as interesting from a journalistic flair motif!
Either way, awesome post!
Still, I'm a little curious about the high mortality rate of the newer genres. Wouldn't this also have to do with the fact that the genres are new enough that there isn't enough data to tell where this is headed as most of the players in the game are still kicking, you'd naturally skew negatively.
Beyond this, how to you determine if a musician even counts to be in the list? Is it based on charting or just media mentions? Because this would skew hiphop as well as quite a few musicians that have never released an album are counted because of modern media whereas they would not have in the past?
It is an interesting study, I'd just like to see the data and methodology!
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Dianna Theadora Kenny
Professor of Psychology and Music at University of Sydney
In reply to Clif MarsiglioHi Clif
I had strong words with the Editor of The Conversation over his removal from my piece of all the detail that you seek. He wanted to appeal to a general readership, not people who can ask the hard questions. All of your points are entirely valid, but I have them all covered. They will soon be reported in the scholarly literature that few people read!
Dianna
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Dianna Theadora Kenny
Professor of Psychology and Music at University of Sydney
In reply to Clif MarsiglioHi Clif
If you are interested in reading the detail, please send me an email address and I will send you some papers.
Dianna
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Peter Ormonde
Peter Ormonde is a Friend of The Conversation.Leaner
Folk music gives you cancer!!! Everyone knows that. Especially banjos.
I've always had trouble with this "genre" business - a blurry business at best. And where are the opera divas then? Or do they live forever?
And why aren't there more country musicians hurling themselves into the abyss ... or are their maudlin lyrics designed to just depress the audience?
Plain packaging for banjos now!
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David Roth
Postgrad History Student, Retired Software Engineer
In reply to Peter OrmondeOne good point about banjos is that they burn quickly.
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Stephen Glanfield
Policy Analyst
In reply to David RothDavid - is your middle name Lee by any chance?
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David Roth
Postgrad History Student, Retired Software Engineer
In reply to Stephen GlanfieldNo, but I wish I had a dollar for each such question.But I do a bit of singing (not in the rock genre).
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James Hill
Industrial Designer
In reply to Peter OrmondeLots of people still traumatised by that "Deliverance" movie?
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Susan Nolan
retired
In reply to Peter OrmondeMade my day, Mr O.
As they say these days - LOL. I really did!
I'll now have to send this article to some banjo players I know - telling them it's no good just glancing through the article - they have to read the comments.
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James Jenkin
James Jenkin is a Friend of The Conversation.EFL Teacher Trainer
'These figures likely represent a combination of factors inherent in the popular music industry (such as the ubiquitous presence of alcohol and other substances of addiction, irregular hours, touring, high levels of stress, performance anxiety)'
(I guess you'd want to add 'crime' - since homicide is a common cause of death.)
It would be interesting to know prevalence of these factors in each genre.
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Dianna Theadora Kenny
Professor of Psychology and Music at University of Sydney
In reply to James JenkinIndeed! Crime is certainly ever present in the rap and hip hop genres - worse than a war zone judging from the homicide rate.
Dianna
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Paul Prociv
botanical engineer; rtd medical academic at University of Queensland
Thanks for this fascinating stuff. No doubt pre-morbid personality accounts for many of the violent deaths, and several musical genres must attract (perhaps require?!) individuals with personalities distorted by, for example, narcissistic or schizo-affective disorders, especially of the bipolar variety. I'd have loved to see a breakdown of classical music performers, for I've long suspected that the physiological requirements for playing different instruments seriously influence longevity -- e.g. woodwind and horn-blowers seriously strain their hearts and lungs, with potential long-term damage leading to premature death. Any evidence for that? Whereas orchestral conductors, with all their bouncing around and obvious enjoyment of their craft, often live to ripe old ages.
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James Hill
Industrial Designer
In reply to Paul ProcivOrchestra players have long been a favourite study of the discipline of Ergonomics, known elsewhere as Industrial Hygeine, or the Man- Machine interface. ( musical instruments qualifying as "machines")
Occupational overuse syndrome, as far as muscles are concerned, brings about skeletal distortions.
Perhaps this knowledge has been acted upon and there are physiotherapists attached to the major orchestras?
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David Roth
Postgrad History Student, Retired Software Engineer
In reply to Paul ProcivYes, it's unfortunate that classical players were omitted. As an amateur woodwind player for many years, I haven't found that playing strained my heart or lungs. From my personal observation of wind bands, many of the players are old geezers like me. I imagine risks for professionals would be RSI, deafness or arthritis. And stress.
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Dianna Theadora Kenny
Professor of Psychology and Music at University of Sydney
In reply to David RothHi David
I and colleagues have undertaken a lot of research on classical musicians. Perhaps you would be interested in my book, "The Psychology of Music Performance Anxiety" (Oxford University Press, 2011) and a myriad of papers in the scholarly literature. Send me an email address if you are interested to receive any of these.Dianna
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David Roth
Postgrad History Student, Retired Software Engineer
In reply to Dianna Theadora KennyThanks Dianna, but I am reluctant to give out my email address in this forum. I did see your book - on a well known book site - was rather expensive. As I realised long ago that I was never going to be good enough to perform professionally, I guess it's too late for me.I know all about performance anxiety when playing or singing solos. I'm taking beta-blockers for a heart condition, but they don't seem to help much with anxiety.
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Dianna Theadora Kenny
Professor of Psychology and Music at University of Sydney
In reply to Paul ProcivThere was a spate of documentation about this issue in the 60s/70s. Not so much recently, but have a look at these papers. There have been musicians with symptoms during wind playing that appear to be very negative in terms of cardiac reaction. The valsalva type reaction is quite common and potentially of concern at a certain stage of age/health. However, most wind and brass players don't seem to keep up this kind of exertion into old age. You see far fewer aged brass/wind players than string players in most orchestras.
Maria L. Hahnengress, Dieter Böning, Cardiopulmonary changes during clarinet playing, European Journal of Applied Physiology, December 2010, Volume 110, Issue 6, pp 1199-1208
Archives of Environmental Health: An International Journal, Volume 23, Issue 5, 1971
Dianna
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Dianna Theadora Kenny
Professor of Psychology and Music at University of Sydney
In reply to David RothI have done a great deal of work on classical musicians, the living though. Have a look at my book,
The Psychology of Music Performance Anxiety, (Oxford University Press, 2011).
Please see reply to James Hill above re the heart/lungs issue.
ThanksDianna
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David Roth
Postgrad History Student, Retired Software Engineer
In reply to Dianna Theadora KennyDiana, there are usually far more strings than wind in most classical orchestras, so turnover of younger persons is more likely for string players. I understood that for the valsalva reaction, one needed to keep the nostrils shut as well. Hahnengress and Boening do say that clarinet playing at professional level does strain ventilation and circulation, but usually not on a pathophysiological level. Flute and brass use different techniques. I guess only further research can determine if professional wind players on average live shorter lives/retire early.
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Susan Nolan
retired
In reply to Paul ProcivI reckon politics has taken up all the narcissists, Paul.
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Susan Nolan
retired
In reply to Dianna Theadora KennyBut they were there in the jazz bands, Dianna - at least in the New Orleans variety - and some of them still are - these older brass and woodwind players.
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Kris Rogers
Senior Biostatistician at University of Sydney
Average age at death is not a good measure of longevity to compare groups if your populations have substantially different distributions of ages. Metal, Rap, Punk have only existed since the 70's, most of your population at risk in these groups simply haven't died yet.
You not only need the decedent cases (i.e. records of those who have died), you need information on the rest of the population 'at-risk' who haven't died to yet be able to compare between genres.
This also introduces a bias in interpresting the cause of death data - cause of death is strongly related to age, and so the differences between genre could just be reflecting a younger, more modern cohort in punk, metal, EDM etc.
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Dianna Theadora Kenny
Professor of Psychology and Music at University of Sydney
In reply to Kris RogersHi Kris
Thanks for your comments - which were fully aired when my first piece came out in The Conversation in October last year. I am fully aware of the issues and accept that they are confounds inherent in the data set. However, I am currently working with an actuary who has undertaken modelling that shows that the data and its conclusions are strong. I am will be publishing this work in the near future. Two published studies using actuarial methods have also concluded that musicians from newer genres have much reduced lifespans compared to comparable general populations.Dianna
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Dianna Theadora Kenny
Professor of Psychology and Music at University of Sydney
In reply to Kris RogersHi Kris
Thanks for your comments. I am fully aware of these issues but was unable, due to space restrictions and the requirement of the Editor to "appeal to a general readership", to address these issues in this short piece.Actuarial analyses will be forthcoming soon, which, I am happy to say, support the findings presented here.
Dianna
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Andrew McIntosh
Free at last! (For now...)
Suicide accounted for almost 7% of all deaths in the total sample. However, for punk musicians, suicide accounted for 11% of deaths; for metal musicians, a staggering 19.3%.
As a life-long fan of Metal I was a tad cynical of that statistic. There's a decent online guide to death of Metal merchants at http://www.metal-archives.com/artist/rip which seems to list the occasional suicide but it's far from the highest cause of death in that scene. I wonder what, exactly, they class as "Metal" for this study.
Mind you, Metal doesn't flinch from suicide. Indeed there's a whole sub-genre devoted to it, Depressive/Suicidal Black Metal, which for the most part is dull as dishwater apart from a few honourable exceptions. It's hardly surprising when the genre, as a whole, attracts those with a less than optimistic outlook on life.
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Francis Holden
CEO/ Company Director
Dianna
Sad that the conversation forces articles to go to tabloid- the headline says causality when clearly the study, I assume, suggests correlation.
It would be good if articles linked to a website that supplied reference, footnotes, raw data etc. Would be easy to do.
F'instance I'm curious where Kobain and Marley were plonked. Sam Cooke? Tim Buckley? And so on.
How famous or big selling does one have to be.?
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Dianna Theadora Kenny
Professor of Psychology and Music at University of Sydney
In reply to Francis HoldenHi Francis
I agree - particularly for data-based papers. The editor of my piece removed a great deal of detail that I wanted included because this site is for "general readership".
A very detailed paper on all the method questions is in press but is taking ages to go to print (Arrrgh!)Can you contact me again in a couple of months for this?
re: Kobain (metal), Marley (reggae i.e, world), Cooke (Soul), Buckley (very hard to place but funk)
Dianna
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Francis Holden
CEO/ Company Director
Have you compared musicians to other artists? Writers, painters, film makers, etc?And a comparison with non professional or "unsuccessful" musos in the same genres?
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Dianna Theadora Kenny
Professor of Psychology and Music at University of Sydney
In reply to Francis HoldenNo, life is too short! It took me 18 months to build the popular musician database!
I will leave those comparisons to others.
Dianna
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Charl Van Der Merwe
logged in via Facebook
I am abit Confused at that Line graph.I understand the Correlation of the Musician between Genre and age of death.Thats all good.
But the correlation between the Average Life expectancy and the Genre?Did each of these people have a favourite Genre and you mapped that to their age of death ?
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Dianna Theadora Kenny
Professor of Psychology and Music at University of Sydney
In reply to Charl Van Der MerweHi Charl
The average age of death was calculated for each genre. I then used the average year of birth for each genre to calculate the general US population life expectancy for that year of birth.
Dianna
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James Jones
logged in via email @gmail.com
It would be nice to know more about who the "popular" musicians are. I mean, to get a life expectancy of 28ish for rap/hip-hop musicians with 51% of them being murdered, did you cherry-pick like 8 total people?
Anyone with a bit of common sense knows both of those statistics are inaccurate.
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Dianna Theadora Kenny
Professor of Psychology and Music at University of Sydney
In reply to James JonesThose who have never conducted painstaking research always seem to know the answers!!!
I can assure you that no cherry-picking occurred.
Dianna
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James Jones
logged in via email @gmail.com
In reply to Dianna Theadora KennyThen how many rap/hip-hop musicians were in the sample?
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Dianna Theadora Kenny
Professor of Psychology and Music at University of Sydney
In reply to James JonesRap = 145Hip Hop = 229
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Rob Scooter
Juggler
Read moreEnjoyed the piece, though that's one elephant of a confounding variable. Unpacking some of it, I do have concerns. Will excerpt just this one as the jumping point.
"Murder accounted for 6.0% of deaths across the sample, but was the cause of 51% of deaths in rap musicians and 51.5% of deaths for hip hop musicians, to date. This could be due to these genres’ strong associations with drug-related crime and gang culture."
So, we accept that lifespan will skew all non-aging-related deaths dramatically higher with how much closer to present day these genres' popularity have hit critical mass. But how much higher a percentage is meaningful in the face of that confounding variable? Would like to see this distinction if viable, and assume the lifespan factor skews up accidental/homicide/suicide share quite a bit for new genres.
And there are some other critical variables that seemingly dwarf the "newer genres kill you younger" trend one might pull from the line graph: punk and metal ushered in with coke's capture of the zeitgeist, hip-hop/rap artists suffering from social wealth gap issues more than the act of conveying their experiences in art (though as I read the story, it's not necessarily blaming the content).
Then there's analyzing genre content in these few simple categories, which seem dubious in the way it unifies the disparate. I wouldn't be surprised Kendrick Lamar, Kanye West and many new rap artists and those to come have a higher life expectancy than rap's previous point relative to musician average (by this study's measure), as genres more or less jumble to an average when also factoring in the many poor, starving musicians across genre.
All in all an interesting read, but I'd venture to guess this mostly evens out across genre as two more generations of data come in. Guess we'll see.
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Dianna Theadora Kenny
Professor of Psychology and Music at University of Sydney
In reply to Rob ScooterThanks for your thoughtful comments, Rob. If you email me at my university address, I will send you more details of the study that will hopefully address some of the issues that you have raised.Dianna
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Tyler Smith
logged in via Facebook
I still can't say I'm strongly convinced by this analysis. Let's assume you did an analysis looking at average age at death and causes of mortality in persons who have read the Harry Potter novels, to borrow an example from Alex Tabarrok. You would not only see a much lower average age at death than the population life expectancy, but the causes of those deaths, especially if you simply looked at them as a percent of all deaths in the cohort, would be strongly favoring those causes associated with early mortality.
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ashoka
logged in via Twitter
Read moreHi Diana,
I'd like to know which sources you used to make the wild accusation that 50 percent of rappers are murdered. That's clearly not true, and from what I can see not based on anything remotely resembling an accurate source. Given that you're smearing an entire artistic genre is so violent that half its performers are killed, and that you're getting funding from an arts foundation, I'd like you to walk us through the sourcing that you used for that claim. Was it Wikipedia? I would have a hard time believing that an academic would use that medium to do their research, so I assume you have a stronger source. Unfortunately, I don't have access to that source, so I had to run through wikipedia quickly: it looks like there were 69 murdered rappers on the list you reference in this article (although many of them aren't nearly relevant enough to meet the arbitrary 'pop' standard you're using). By contrast, the Wiki list of rap artists has about that same number just under the "A" category.
So here's a flat out question: did you invent those numbers?
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Susan Nolan
retired
In reply to ashokaI'm not sure that this article is saying that 51% of rappers are murdered.
Rather, I think that the article is saying - of those rappers who have died, 51% were murdered.
Which is a totally different thing.
Dianna might be able to say whether my understanding of what the article is saying is correct or not.
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Peter Ormonde
Peter Ormonde is a Friend of The Conversation.Leaner
In reply to Susan NolanYes indeed Ms N and to really get to the heart of the matter one must look at what being urban, black and American does for one's "lifestyle choices". To really make sense of the trends or correlations you'd need to put the cohorts into not only their musical genres but also into the sharply divided health statistics of the USA where for example black, urban males: http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2014/aug/24/juan-williams/juan-williams-no-1-cause-death-african-americans-1/
But they would indeed probably be a lot safer if they started plucking banjos.
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Susan Nolan
retired
In reply to Peter OrmondeThose are staggering figures. I wasn't aware how sharply divided on race the USA's mortality statistics are.
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Peter Ormonde
Peter Ormonde is a Friend of The Conversation.Leaner
In reply to Susan NolanRead moreNot just on mortality figures Ms N ... the racial divide in the US runs from cradle to grave - from schooling, to housing, health, income, arrests, imprisonment, sentencing ... by every conceivable characteristic the US is at least two different countries superimposed on the same geography. That most uncivil of wars remains unfinished.
And the notion of "race" is deeply embedded in the country's psyche - nowhere more evident than in the way it counts itself. The use of strange "race" criteria in US statistics was and is deeply confronting to me - and fortunately to an increasing number of yanks as well.
Interestingly such simple racialist classes only hold true where the classes remain separate and don't genetically mingle but at least on the margins there is a confounding "browning" which is throwing the statisticians a few curve balls.
This is so deeply embedded in the US view of themselves that they issue edicts about how to count the uncountable ... have a read of this: https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/fedreg_1997standards The bit on "Arabs" is particularly interesting.
There are indeed certain types of data that can and should reflect ethnicity (health and poverty etc) but that is not what is actually being captured in the US system. Goes right to the heart of the matter actually.
And equally "race" is reflected in what they do not count - like the "race" of victims of police violence, arrests and the like.
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Jamaal Williams
logged in via Twitter
I know this is a scientific study which discounts the spiritual world but the truth is Satan is behind a lot these genres.
God created music to glorify Himself. All things were created by Him and for Him according to the Bible.
Pop music glorifies vain things that appeals to the carnal nature when music should be praising and glorifying Jesus Christ.
Satan uses music to influence people to stay in sin and pull people away from God and people fall for it hook, line, and sinker.
Check out this community exposing it https://plus.google.com/communities/112901951136111901047
It’s time to repent of all our sins and turn to the Lord and God Jesus Christ and be saved from the wrath that is to come.
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Peter Ormonde
Peter Ormonde is a Friend of The Conversation.Leaner
In reply to Jamaal WilliamsI'm intrigued Jamaal - what "genres" would you say are free from the sulphuric fingers of Beelzebub?
And don't you go saying Gospel cos we all know that leads to frivolous foot tapping in church which is perniciously only a step away from dancing.
I can smell the brimstone from here ....
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David Roth
Postgrad History Student, Retired Software Engineer
In reply to Jamaal WilliamsI guess that's too bad for Jews, Hindus, atheists or Buddhists then.
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Peter Ormonde
Peter Ormonde is a Friend of The Conversation.Leaner
In reply to David RothWell they'd be all hell-bound by definition David ... so they can dance and sing and carry on like they were possessed. Which of course they are.
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Susan Nolan
retired
In reply to Peter Ormonde -
Peter Ormonde
Peter Ormonde is a Friend of The Conversation.Leaner
In reply to Susan NolanWhat a pity there is no sound track Ms N ... kerplunk at 130 db. The Devil's orchestra incarnate.
A circle of hell that Dante missed entirely. Too terrible even to contemplate.
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Susan Nolan
retired
Well, there you go then. In choosing life over death - choose blues, jazz, country and gospel.
From this statement:
Importantly, because this was a quantitative study of dead musicians and our aim was to gather population data to identify occupational hazards in the pop music world, I can only speculate here about the underlying causes of these patterns in mortality.
however, it would seem that living musicians are not included. So, I suppose, we can't really say what the mortality rates of these musicians (blues, jazz, country and gospel) are, compared to the general population.
Pity. I love blues, jazz and gospel and would have liked to have been able to say that these are life-affirming genres.
I love great art, no matter the medium.