# Are the music superstars of the 80s dying younger than those of other decades? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 26, 2016, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-music-superstars-of-the-80s-dying-younger-than-those-of-other-decades/775641 "2016-12-26T09:37:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2016, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-music-superstars-of-the-80s-dying-younger-than-those-of-other-decades/775641/21 "2016-12-27T23:09:44Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Looking at record sales, at 80 million, his numbers put him in the same sales level as Red Hot Chili Peppers, Coldplay, The Doors, Van Halen, and Tom Petty. 20 million of those George Michael records were sold in the US. And I’ve heard of all of those. Strange. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Lowry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Sam\_Lowry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Lowry)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-music-superstars-of-the-80s-dying-younger-than-those-of-other-decades/775641/22 "2016-12-28T00:25:57Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > One thing I forgot to mention in my OP is the fact that Jackson, Houston, Prince, and Michael have all died within seven years also seemed a bit odd. You could probably make another group of four other 80s superstars who died in another 7 year period, depending on how you define superstar. I don’t know why it’s that odd that those four died with seven years. Also based on looking at lists of top 80s stars, both on most popular and on most critically acclaimed, it looks like there are a whole lot who are still alive, including many who shouldn’t be based on their lifestyles (Ozzy Osbourne comes to mind). ---
**Author:** ![Donpeyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a4c791/32.png) [@Donpeyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donpeyote)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-music-superstars-of-the-80s-dying-younger-than-those-of-other-decades/775641/23 "2016-12-28T00:54:34Z")
Look at how many former top flight athletes are dying under 60 lately … ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-music-superstars-of-the-80s-dying-younger-than-those-of-other-decades/775641/24 "2016-12-28T02:16:46Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > And I’ve heard of all of those. Strange. Apparently, his current sales numbers are closer to 100 million. And on NPR today, I heard them say he was the most played artist on the radio in Britain from 1983-2003 (although Wikipedia says 1984-2004; maybe I’m misremembering, but a 20-year span either way.) Anyhow, here is [a contemporaneous cite from when the award was announced](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3666541.stm). ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-music-superstars-of-the-80s-dying-younger-than-those-of-other-decades/775641/25 "2016-12-28T05:50:39Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > He totally counts as 80’s he was damn near ubiquitous in the 80’s, his biggest hits were in the 80’s, in the 70’s he was a young up and comer a cute kid growing into a teen heart throb, in the 80’s he was the king of pop, by the 90’s fair or not he’d become “that weird guy” more and more in the spotlight for the odd parts of his life than his music. Actually it was in the 90s that Michael created his best and biggest selling album, _Older_, which I mentioned upthread. He wrote, arranged and produced it, and played most of the instruments. This from Wiki: > [@](#): > > Older was a huge commercial success, especially in the European markets. In the UK the album was largely anticipated, and debuted at No.1 with an impressive 281,000 copies, becoming one of the biggest debuts ever in British history (it currently ranks as the 23rd fastest-selling album in the UK). It is also Virgin’s fastest-selling album of all time.[12] It became Michael’s biggest-selling album in his homeland, achieving over 1.8 million copies sold, and receiving a 6xPlatinum certification by the BPI on 5 December 1997. In the UK, it spent a total of 147 weeks inside the Top 200, 99 of them on the Top 75, and 35 of them on the Top 10 (including 23 consecutive weeks). _Older_ was the album that made me start to take George Michael seriously and revealed him [to me] to be a hugely talented singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. ---
**Author:** ![Go\_Arachnid\_Laser\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b2d939/32.png) [@Go\_Arachnid\_Laser\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Go_Arachnid_Laser_1)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-music-superstars-of-the-80s-dying-younger-than-those-of-other-decades/775641/26 "2016-12-28T07:04:02Z")
I guess that one factor is that the world wide pop culture didn’t really exist before the 60’s, aside from your Elvis and Rat Pack, and then it multiplied exponentially until it reached it’s peak in the 80’s. So there’s a larger pool to choose from. Maybe somebody like Bowie or Alan Rickman wouldn’t be particularly known in the US or even outside the UK had they been born just ten years earlier. And also cocaine being a hell of a drug. A combination of both things. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-music-superstars-of-the-80s-dying-younger-than-those-of-other-decades/775641/27 "2016-12-28T07:23:26Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > I’m going with increased drug use of drugs like cocaine and heroin being more prevalent amongst these “newer” generation pop stars than what came before. A couple decades or so of cocaine abuse will shorten anyone’s life. I believe it’s also what prematurely helped kill Bowie, a known coke freak in his heydey. A lot of the members of the 27 club joined thanks to drugs. I recently realized I’m several years older than Freddie, who also did his share of happy pills (his share, and the neighbor’s, and the neighbor’s neighbor…) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-music-superstars-of-the-80s-dying-younger-than-those-of-other-decades/775641/28 "2016-12-28T11:26:08Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Actually it was in the 90s that Michael created his best and biggest selling album, _Older_, which I mentioned upthread. He wrote, arranged and produced it, and played most of the instruments. This from Wiki: > > _Older_ was the album that made me start to take George Michael seriously and revealed him [to me] to be a hugely talented singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. TBG’s quote is about Michael Jackson, not George Michael. (Though between Wham and the album Faith, I do associate him more with the 80s, too.) ---
**Author:** ![John\_Lazarus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e7dd6/32.png) [@John\_Lazarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Lazarus)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-music-superstars-of-the-80s-dying-younger-than-those-of-other-decades/775641/29 "2016-12-28T13:59:02Z")
I was just commenting to my wife a little while ago, about how all the Ramones (mid-70s through the 80s) were dead but the Rolling Stones were still (mostly) kicking. Joey Ramone (1951–2001), age 49 Dee Dee Ramone (1951–2002), age 50 Johnny Ramone (1948–2004), age 55 Tommy Ramone (1949–2014), age 65 Mick Jagger (1943- ), age 73 Keith Richards (1943- ), age 73 Ronnie Wood (1947- ), age 69 Charlie Watts (1941- ), age 75 Bill Wyman (1936- ), age 80 Mick Taylor (1949- ), age 67 The only Rolling Stone who died was Brian Jones (1942-1969), age 27. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-music-superstars-of-the-80s-dying-younger-than-those-of-other-decades/775641/30 "2016-12-28T15:06:33Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > TBG’s quote is about Michael Jackson, not George Michael. (Though between Wham and the album Faith, I do associate him more with the 80s, too.) Oops, my mistake, thanks. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-music-superstars-of-the-80s-dying-younger-than-those-of-other-decades/775641/31 "2016-12-28T17:38:29Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > Michael Jackson came to prominence in the 70s (His first solo album was in 1972, after being with the Jackson 5 for a couple years), and remained so _for his music_ into the 90s, so he doesn’t count as a _80s_ superstar, IMO. Jackson’s career may not have started or ended in the 80s but he absolutely was the biggest music superstar of the decade. He was also arguably the greatest pioneer of music video, a distinctly 80s thing. Someone like Debbie Gibson might seem for “eighties” in the aesthetic sense of 1. Having music that sounds very dated to that time, and 2. Having essentially no success prior to 1980 or after 1989, … but in the 1980s, Michael Jackson was ten times more important than Debbie Gibson. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-music-superstars-of-the-80s-dying-younger-than-those-of-other-decades/775641/32 "2016-12-28T18:52:23Z")
Every so often, I see claims that “the average NFL player dies at age 55.” And yet, if you check the roster from, say, the 1969 Jets, you’ll find the great majority of those players are alive and well. I don’t know any good way to check on the age and health of all the artists who made the Billboard charts in the 80s, but I’d be astonished if most weren’t still alive and well. The deaths of a few high profile stars tell us very little. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-music-superstars-of-the-80s-dying-younger-than-those-of-other-decades/775641/33 "2016-12-28T20:01:14Z")
Another selection effect is simply because recent decades are recent. If you look at, say, the set of people who were 20 years old in 1980, you’ll find that not one of them has lived any longer than 57 years. Does that mean that they’re all dropping dead? No, it just means that of those who have dropped dead, all were young, because all of the living ones are young, too, and none of them has yet had time to grow old. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-music-superstars-of-the-80s-dying-younger-than-those-of-other-decades/775641/34 "2016-12-28T22:30:25Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Another selection effect is simply because recent decades are recent. If you look at, say, the set of people who were 20 years old in 1980, you’ll find that not one of them has lived any longer than 57 years. Does that mean that they’re all dropping dead? No, it just means that of those who have dropped dead, all were young, because all of the living ones are young, too, and none of them has yet had time to grow old. Logical. When I was a teen, if you heard that a rock star of the 60s or 70s had died, you assumed it was drugs. But now? All the stars of that era are plenty old enough to die of cancer, diabetes, strokes and heart attacks. The Bangles and Kajagoogoo aren’t. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-music-superstars-of-the-80s-dying-younger-than-those-of-other-decades/775641/35 "2016-12-28T22:38:20Z")
Aren’t there more celebrities as time goes on? Therefore, wouldn’t there be more celebrity deaths as time goes on? Add in what others said about the ability for older stars to stay relevant in the internet age more than they used to, causing their deaths to be bigger news than the blip on the screen they may have been had they made their careers thirty years earlier, and I don’t find it surprising at all. Of course, there’s no way to rigorously verify all that without an agreed-upon definition of “celebrity”. For example, I would be pretty upset if Richard Stallman dies. He and Snowden are probably the biggest names in digital freedom in world history. Losing RMS will be like losing George Washington. Apparently some people at MIT agree with me. But I doubt that Stallman will ever be included in any mainstream list of celebrities. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2016, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-music-superstars-of-the-80s-dying-younger-than-those-of-other-decades/775641/36 "2016-12-31T05:10:34Z")
No if you look at people who were stars in the in the 40’s-50’s-60-70’s there was a lot of mortality in their 50’s-60’s just due to smoking like chimneys and hard drinking but this was also true of just people in general in that age/time demographic. These day if a star dies in their 50’s to 60’s and it was not explicitly from a disease condition a lot of the time it seems they will have lived drug and alcohol fueled lives, especially in their younger years. it takes a toll. George Michael, Prince, Michael Jackson, even Carrie Fisher (when younger) all had serious substance abuse issues. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-music-superstars-of-the-80s-dying-younger-than-those-of-other-decades/775641.md?page=1)