The+27+Club+Music+Lyrics+Reflect+Psychological+Distress

Markowitz, David M., and Jeffrey T. Hancock. "The 27 Club: Music Lyrics Reflect Psychological Distress." //Communication Reports// 30.1 (2016): 1-13. //Taylor & Francis Online//. Web. 1 Mar. 2017.

In their article, David M. Markowitz, a doctoral student in Stanford University’s Department of Communication, and Jeffrey T. Hancock, a Professor in the same department, discuss and research whether “psychological distress” can be expressed through lyrics. The authors state that their research is based on formulaic evaluations of the language and syntax of lyrics written by members of the 27 Club, who are divided into two groups: non-suicidal and suicidal. Non-suicidal musicians are those that died of accidental causes that they had no effect over (accidents, homicide, etc.) Suicidal musicians are those that died of causes they directly controlled (drug overdose, suicide, etc.). Based on similar studies conducted, Markowitz and Hancock theorize and conclude that suicidal members of the 27 Club will show signs of psychological distress or mental illness within their lyrics. They include charts, tables, and formulas used to determine their conclusion.

Markowitz and Hancock provide sound evidence for their claim, however, there are directly stated “limitations” to their research and findings. Namely, they do not include members of the 27 Club whose causes of death are disputed or unclear and their definitions of ‘suicidal’ and ‘non-suicidal’ are not medically accurate. For example, by not including all members of the 27 Club their research could be skewed leading to an inaccurate result; as well as the fact that their definitions of ‘suicidal’ and ‘non-suicidal’ can be, in themselves contradictory since how a person died does not determine whether they experienced psychological distress, apart from suicide. (Musicians who accidentally overdosed on drugs are not, medically-speaking, suicidal and musicians who died in a car accident could have been suicidal before their death.) With that being said, this article still holds academic merit based on the fact that it includes both musicians who have definitely experienced psychological distress and those who did not, and because the materials evaluated to determine psychological distress were directly written by the people being evaluated. The article also directly correlates to the subject matter of musicians dying unnaturally young.