Embedded Files
In this article, Peter dives into the weird rabbit hole of the 27 Club.
The Off-Putting Phenomenon of the 27 Club
The Off-Putting Phenomenon of the 27 Club
By Peter Easterwood
*Warning: This articles covers drug abuse and suicide*
*Warning: This articles covers drug abuse and suicide*
Death is a sad tragedy that everyone in the world will experience one way or another. One of the ways someone may experience this sad, yet important time in their lives is through the death of an artist. The feelings music garners inside everyday people are incredible and hard to explain for many who have experienced first-hand an emotion during a song or an album. The idea of death is a hard one to understand, especially after it occurs, which is why, to many, experiencing the passing of a loved one or someone they care about dearly is a tough time. The same can be said for an artist. Their listeners deal with the same emotions as if they were close friends or family. There are many examples of fans appreciating the artist’s legacy, whether it be a painting a mural of them, creating music themselves, or just a post of the artist. Fans have found a way to memorialize them, but there is a dark side to this. The biggest example of this is the 27 Club “theory”.
Photo by: Flickr
The 27 Club consists of many artists who have sadly passed away specifically at the age of 27. The list is filled with many legendary artists like Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, Amy Winehouse, and many more. All of the artists that are part of this list have paved the way for many artists that came after them and popularized the genres they created music. Many of these artists passed away due to drug-related incidents, making the 27 Club also known for that. It does not change how emotional the passing of these artists is or how much worse each one is compared to the other but, to some, it helps.
Photo from: Flickr
The 27 Club started between the years of 1969 to 1971 with the deaths of multiple artists-- from Brian Jones to Jim Morrison, the last “big name” that passed, in 1971. The eeriest fact between all these deaths at the time was the reason they died. Most of them passed away from drug-related complications. At the time during the late '60s to early '70s, the use of drugs was on the rise. The three-headed monster of drugs was: weed, heroin, and cocaine. The number of drugs many famous artists were using got in the way of their creation of art. Sly Stone (front main of Sly and the Family Stone) was seen multiple times during interviews acting completely out of it. Barney Hoskyns, a writer for The Guardian, said, “Come show time at the ABC's Manhattan studios the next day, Stone was nowhere to be seen. He was still in his hotel, working his way through a stash of cocaine and deferring departure as long as he could.” It became a common sight to see multiple artists high on cocaine, or weed, taking the lives of many (Jimi Hendrix for example) who accidentally overdosed on drugs.
It didn’t end after the ‘70s. Many more artists passed away during their 27th year. In the ’90s, the musical artist that comes to mind is Kurt Cobain: the frontman, lead singer, and guitarist of Nirvana. At this point in their career, Nirvana was, arguably, the most popular band in the world. This fame affected Kurt Cobain; in the same way, it affected Amy Winehouse, neither wanting a great amount of notoriety. As quickly as he came onto the scene, he was gone. On Apr. 5, 1994, Kurt Cobain passed away from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Before his death, he was “openly” going through a “downfall” health-wise, as well as also being diagnosed with bipolar disorder at a young age, which added to his struggles.
To add to the stress fame gives normal people with talent, there’s Amy Winehouse-- a very talented singer, with energy through the roof, while performing, and one of the best voices ever. She openly hated the idea of being famous. PsychAlive, a website for many dealing with psychological issues to learn more about what they’re dealing with, wrote an article about Amy Winehouse’s issues with fame. The author of this article, Donna Rockwell sourced an interview with Winehouse’s first manager and friend, Nick Shymansky. He said (on how dealt with fame), “The fame came very, very quick and very strong…”, “She got depressed, she got lost, she got into a bad crowd, started trying heavy drugs…”
Photo by: Wkimedia Commons
Now, many people might think the lives that were lost during these times would have been memorialized more for their talent or who they were as a person than anything else. They were not. The 27 Club is now a part of these artists' careers, focusing more on their death than the art they created. When someone passes away, no one should ever think of how they passed away or when. This “club” has helped push that ideology forward, now forever a memory of how these artists passed.
Page updated
Report abuse