Citation

Zharinov GM, Mikhalsky AI, Neklasova NY, Anisimov VN. Adv. Gerontol. (2011) 2020; 10(2): 193-203.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Pleiades Publishing)

DOI

10.1134/S2079057020020150

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Data on the lifespan and some causes of death in musicians of the 20th century are presented in this article. The mean age of death (MAD) in 20 218 male musicians was 67.8 years, whereas the MAD in 4363 female musicians was 71.5 years. Among both men and women, "classical" musicians lived longer than musicians performing jazz, pop, and variety music (6.3 and 9.7 years longer, respectively) and much longer than rock musicians (21.7 and 30.7 years longer, respectively). Among interpreters of classical music, 10.8% of men and 21.5% of women survived to the age of 90 years old, these proportions among male and female jazz and variety musicians were 5.4 and 9.2%, respectively; rock musicians rarely survived to 90 years of age (0.4% in men and women). Male musicians of the classical genre (9100 persons) lived 3.5 years less then female musicians of the same genre (2339 persons). The MAD of jazz and variety musicians did not differ in men (7974) and women (1770), and the MAD in female rock musicians (254) was 5.5 years less than that of male rock musicians (3144). The frequency of suicides, deaths by misadventure, murders, and malignant tumors was maximal in rock musicians and minimal in classical musicians. The onset of all of these events also depended on the music genre. The article also presents data on musicians of the 20th century who reached the age of 101 years. © 2020, Pleiades Publishing, Ltd.

Language: en

Keywords

suicide; cancer; violent death; long-living persons; mean age of death; musicians