The “27 Club” refers to the many rockstars and musicians who died at the age of 27. These stars who burnt out but didn’t fade away (as Kurt Cobain put it in his suicide letter) include: Amy Winehouse, Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison. Why does there seem to be a pattern of so many talented musicians leave us at this specific age? The result is a combination of circumstance and environment. But most importantly 27 isn’t the key age where things go awry so much as it has been a coincidental age that we’ve latched onto because it has a ring to. Rockstars, however, are more likely to die young than non-rockstars of the same age group and era. Some die younger than 27, some a bit older, but before their time no less. A 2012 British study that surveyed 1,500 performers over a 40-year period compared the lifespans of rockstars and non-rockstars of the same era; meaning Kurt Cobain’s lifespan would be compared to the lifespans of other people from his age group in the 1990s. The survey found that North American rockstars were 87.6% as likely to be alive as their contemporary non-rockstars. Which translates to North American rockstars being more likely to die prematurely. In 27: A History of the 27 Club, author Howard Sounes asserts that the reasons for these early deaths is often the fact that many of these rockstars had substance abuse issues, “difficult childhoods,” attracted other drug addicts and lead the less than physiologically healthy “rockstar” lifestyle that all promoted their unfortunate demises. However the British researchers did find that early rockstar deaths are on the decline due to the corporatization and professionalization of the music industry. Where as music often used to be the product of organic subcultural movements where wayward youth could find a voice, it has now become a desirable and acceptable job that attracts a more vast array of people. [Via. Policy Mic]