Chad Batka for The New York Times For European stars, a study found, an increase in mortality narrowed and disappeared entirely after a couple of decades of fame.A new study confirms what music fans have long suspected: rock and pop musicians die prematurely more often than the general population.
The study also found that an early death is twice as likely for musicians with solo careers and that stars who die from substance abuse tend to have troubled childhoods. In addition, the survey found that musicians who reached stardom after 1980 hav e better survival rates. The same was true of older rock stars in Europe. In that group, musicians who survive for 25 years after becoming famous have the same death rate as the general population.
Researchers from Liverpool John Moores University studied the lives of 1,489 rock and pop stars who became famous between 1956 and 2006, of whom 137 had died. Overall, they discovered musicians suffered “higher levels of mortality than demographically matched individuals in the general population.â€
The results suggest that, over time, fame can hazardous to a popular musician's health, especially in North America. The researchers found the survival rate for rock and pop stars in North America was far below the general population's rate and that gap became greater with each passing year. In Europe, the difference was significant but narrowed and disappeared entirely a fter a couple of decades of fame. Solo artists from North America had the worst survival rates.
But the authors of the study, led by Mark A. Bellis, said fame and hedonistic high living may not be the only factors in premature deaths of popular musicians. They found nearly half of the musicians whose deaths were linked to drug or alcohol use also had “adverse childhood experiences,†like sexual abuse, or violent or alcoholic parents.
The authors said these childhood experiences are often overlooked in discussions about musicians who abuse drugs or alcohol, or who commit suicide, as journalists and researchers tend to focus instead on excess and indulgence in the music industry and the pressures of celebrity as causes.
Another explanation, the authors said, is that popular music attracts a large number of people from troubled homes, who start life with a higher chance of dying pr ematurely.
“Pursuing a career as a rock or pop musician may itself be a risky strategy and one attractive to those escaping from abusive, dysfunctional or deprived childhoods,†the authors wrote. “Consequently, an industry with a concentration of individuals having acute and long-term health risks is perhaps not unexpected.â€
The research was published Wednesday in the online journal BMJ Open.
This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: December 20, 2012
An earlier version of this post misstated the date that a mortality study was published. It was Wednesday, Dec. 19, not Thursday, Dec. 20.
