Prince is dead

[Josephus]

His best song was Nothing Compares 2 you

[crazy canuck]

I've heard a few people say he was as much of a musical genius as Michael Jackson.  Uh, no.

I agree, I don't think MJ was as gifted musically. He was a great performer and he knew how he wanted his music to sound.  But he relied on others to help him write and produce.  Prince did it all, he wrote, produced and performed.  He could play all the instruments.  He wrote for other musicians. In terms of musical knowledge and technical ability I don't think there is any comparison.

[crazy canuck]

His best song was Nothing Compares 2 you

That was a great song.

[Legbiter]

Prince died at the average age of death for American male pop stars.



But he lived a million prole lifetimes compressed into one.

[The Larch]

Male pop musicians in the 90s had a life expectancy between 45 and 50? Did they moonlight as professional wrestlers on the side or what?

[celedhring]

Yeah, I find that statistic a bit hard to believe. I mean, there's a bunch of high profile popstar early deaths, but my perception is that most of them reach old age like anybody else.

[Admiral Yi]

I think the x axis is referring to people who died at that time, not people who were musicians at that time.

[frunk]

I think the main reason why that chart is pretty bogus is the demographic difference between pop musicians and the population at large.  In the 1950s how old were the very oldest pop musicians?  Considering it wasn't really a widespread form until the 1930s I'd guess the very, very oldest ones would be in their 60s (how many 40 yo pop stars were there in 1930?).  Over time the rapidly increasing pool of people that would be considered pop musicians meant that the average age stayed young.  With the old pop musicians staying a tiny minority their deaths are swamped by normal expected deaths as well as occupational hazards among the younger cohorts.  It's only in the 2000s and 2010s with the 1960s pop boom aging up that it is starting to approach the general population.

[garbon]

I think the main reason why that chart is pretty bogus is the demographic difference between pop musicians and the population at large.  In the 1950s how old were the very oldest pop musicians?  Considering it wasn't really a widespread form until the 1930s I'd guess the very, very oldest ones would be in their 60s (how many 40 yo pop stars were there in 1930?).  Over time the rapidly increasing pool of people that would be considered pop musicians meant that the average age stayed young.  With the old pop musicians staying a tiny minority their deaths are swamped by normal expected deaths as well as occupational hazards among the younger cohorts.  It's only in the 2000s and 2010s with the 1960s pop boom aging up that it is starting to approach the general population.

That strikes me as a sort of silly argument as I would guess the author of the chart in question was looking at 'popular' music. Not that I'm claiming graph is right but I'm not sure why you'd attack an argument that the author was not advancing.

I think this might be the original source and it confirms my suspicions.

http://theconversation.com/stairway-to-hell-life-and-death-in-the-pop-music-industry-32735

I went to rapper death websites, Dead Punk Stars and similar sites for all popular music genres. The genres I covered included African, ballad, bluegrass, blues, Cajun, calypso, Christian pop, conjunto, country, doo-wop, electroclash, folk, funk, Gospel, hard rock, hip hop, honky tonk, indie, jazz, Latin, metal, new wave, polka, pop, psychedelic, punk, punk-electronic, rock rap, reggae, rhythm and blues, rock 'n' roll, rockabilly, ska, soul, swamp, swing, techno, western and world music.

[frunk]

That strikes me as a sort of silly argument as I would guess the author of the chart in question was looking at 'popular' music. Not that I'm claiming graph is right but I'm not sure why you'd attack an argument that the author was not advancing.

I think this might be the original source and it confirms my suspicions.

http://theconversation.com/stairway-to-hell-life-and-death-in-the-pop-music-industry-32735

I went to rapper death websites, Dead Punk Stars and similar sites for all popular music genres. The genres I covered included African, ballad, bluegrass, blues, Cajun, calypso, Christian pop, conjunto, country, doo-wop, electroclash, folk, funk, Gospel, hard rock, hip hop, honky tonk, indie, jazz, Latin, metal, new wave, polka, pop, psychedelic, punk, punk-electronic, rock rap, reggae, rhythm and blues, rock 'n' roll, rockabilly, ska, soul, swamp, swing, techno, western and world music.

There's nothing in the article that disagrees with what I said, and in fact it only confirms it.  He continually compares the numbers to the population at large, rather than comparing to equivalent age brackets.  In 1950 the average age of the general population is going to be way higher than the average age of pop musicians, and I don't think that changes significantly until the more recent data points.  It isn't just because they are dying younger, it's because pop was an ever growing population, expanding way faster than the population at large.  50 years ago the percentage of the population that could claim to have ever been a pop musician would be much lower than it is now, and it would have skewed younger.

It probably is true that pop musicians tend to die younger, but this doesn't prove it.

[DGuller]

It's actually a very good point.  If you plot age at death of millenials against general population, you will likewise find that millenials are dying very young, comparatively speaking.  The potential for bias in this kind of chart is humongous.

[Admiral Yi]

It's actually a very good point.  If you plot age at death of millenials against general population, you will likewise find that millenials are dying very young, comparatively speaking.  The potential for bias in this kind of chart is humongous.

But those people who didn't die young back in the 30s and 40s should have reverted the average back to the population mean in the latter years.

[DGuller]

It's actually a very good point.  If you plot age at death of millenials against general population, you will likewise find that millenials are dying very young, comparatively speaking.  The potential for bias in this kind of chart is humongous.

But those people who didn't die young back in the 30s and 40s should have reverted the average back to the population mean in the latter years.

Not if you have a lot more younger people joining them.  Any difference in age distribution from the general population will skew that plot in a misleading way.

[PDH]

   I didn't die at a young age, and I'm going to leave a really ugly corpse...

[Gups]

I've heard a few people say he was as much of a musical genius as Michael Jackson.  Uh, no.

I agree, I don't think MJ was as gifted musically. He was a great performer and he knew how he wanted his music to sound.  But he relied on others to help him write and produce.  Prince did it all, he wrote, produced and performed.  He could play all the instruments.  He wrote for other musicians. In terms of musical knowledge and technical ability I don't think there is any comparison.

I agree with this in general but MJ did write and co-produce a lot of his own stuff - Beat It, Bille Jean and others