M10 2.0.7

 

So as I type Thursday night, I'm just now doing the M10 shuffle to figure out what goes in this week- and I discover Dalbello's Tango got took off Spotify!  Annoying, but I'm a little more flexible than I was back in the old days, where temporarily losing their spots on the shuffle killed songs like Mo Kenney's Telephone and The Joy Formidable's Liana.  (in other words, 'insert from YouTube')  So while I listen, let me share another StatSignificant study- drug abuse and music.

(Chris from 1 hour 50 minutes in the future: We have 2 debutes this week.  The first one, at #10, is some older stuff I found from Eddie Vedder and the Million Dollar Bashers...)

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 First chart that they use is 'shortest lifespan by profession'.  The top ten shows musicians in the middle of the top ten- doing better than race car drivers, military, boxers, wrestlers, and- what the what?- activists; but worse than swimmers, what the what- chess players- and hockey and football players.  I am happy to announce that I am past the "activist" danger point of 62 years old, but not to the median musician life expectancy of 64.

Next, they took musicians from an assumed "peak age" of 27 and looked for drug abuse mentions on wiki.  What they found was a rocket climb of incidents from the 1920's thru the 30's, a plateau through the 50's, a slightly higher rise in the 60's and 70's before a gradual drop from the mid-1970's until the 2010's, when it began to climb again.

(Chris here again, from ...well, you know... Despite the 'handicap' Dalbello's Tango up one to #9... Cole Swindell keeps Spanish Moss on the chart for a ninth week, down 2 to #8.)

So what substance was involved in this?  Not surprisingly heroin, alcohol and coke were the top 3.  Over 3/4s of famous musicians cited for abuse were doing one or more of those 3.  Another ten % were evenly split between Marijuana and prescription opioids.

Next, they grouped drugs abused by genre.  Rock, Jazz, Blues, and Punk most commonly shot heroin.  Pop and country- big surprise- were alcohol.  Rap, R&B, Hip-Hop, and Funk mainly were doing lines.

(Hi, it's me again!  The next new debut comes in at #7- they are the Minus 5...)

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 But now, let's hit deaths themselves.  38.2% were by prescription opioids; in third were prescription sedatives at 14.7%.  In between them was heroin, at 32.3.  Alcohol and coke almost evenly split the next 11%; anti-depressants clock in at just under 3 %.

On my own follow-up, I went through the wiki list of the 27 Club- the seemingly disproportionate list of famous people who died at the age of 27.  Of those linked to substance abuse, I found heroin claimed 5; sleeping pills, pain pills, opiates, and alcohol were involved in 2 each, one each for barbiturates and anti-depressants, and three others listed only as 'drug overdose'.  Contrast that with 13 car crash deaths.

(Future Chris here, and Amira Elfeky dropped 4 to 6 with Forever Overdose; Sam Roberts Band fell 2 to #5 with Brother Down; and Deradoorian climbs 3 to #4 with Set Me Free...)

(Brief pause while I listen to the next dozen songs on the list, lol!  But you won't notice- since this is a Tardis, I'll merely insert things where they belong like I typed them this way!)

Okay, so past and future meet 2 hours later to finish things off!

Up one to #3 for real Estate and Pink Sky...

Up a big 3 to #2, Melissa Auf der Maur with Out Of Our Minds...

And a third week at #1 for...

...Counting Crows, Under The Aurora!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, present Chris signing off for 12 hours, by which time both present Chris and future Chris will be past Chris!