New research from the UK and US has found that the music industry is not a safe profession due to its high risk of suicide and that women in the business are significantly more at risk.
Poor mental health and music have a troubled shared history. From 27 Club examples like Kurt Cobain to recent pop stars like Liam Payne, suicide has a prevalent link to stardom. Now, research has confirmed that the career is directly linked to higher suicide risk levels.
Research from the UK and US has found that the music industry is not a safe profession due to its high risk of suicide. UK figures put musicians as the fourth most at-risk occupational group for suicide in the UK, behind construction workers, building finishing tradespeople and agricultural workers.
The fifth-highest suicide-risk group was actors and entertainers. It puts musicians at the highest risk group within the occupational group defined as culture, media and sport occupations. For UK musicians, the risk of suicide was 20% than the average for men and a shocking 69% higher than the average rate for women.
Data from the US also found similarly high risk levels. Women in the entertainment industry – including musicians – had the highest suicide rate of any occupational group across multiple years of data. For men, it’s the third-highest risk group.
“When you look at the mortality data in the US and UK, women are demonstrably at risk of suicide compared to women in the general public,” says Dr George Musgrave, Senior Lecturer in Cultural Sociology and Creative Industries at Goldmiths University, who co-authored the study with Dr Dorian Lamis, Associate Professor at Emory Univeristy.
Musgrave explains the high risk levels: “there are occupational stresses that musicians face – profound emotional precarity, vulnerability to exposure on social media, travelling and touring and the emotional strain that can place on them, and investing their lives and identity in a precarious dream.”
“Along with elevated instances of mental ill health – with levels of anxiety and depression – together with substance use and abuse, we can see why musicians are so at risk of suicide,” he continues.
In the paper, the authors quote many examples of the prevalent link between musicians and suicide. Recent famous examples such as One Direction’s Liam Payne and EDM DJ Avicii are given, as well as references to genres with longstanding links to suicide, from metalheads to jazz musicians.
It quotes Jimi Hendrix, who died aged 27: “The moment I feel that I do not have anything more to give musically, that’s when I will not be found on this planet, unless I have a wife and children, because if I do not have anything to communicate through my music, then there is nothing for me to live for. I’m not sure I will live to be twenty-eight years old”.
While media has sometimes made controversy about the suicidal ideation in the lyrics of certain genres like emo and, more recently, Soundcloud rap, the paper notes that “there is no scholarly evidence on increased suicide risk for either performers or listeners of this genre (or group of genres) as this has not yet been investigated.”
Still, rates of suicide are shockingly high for the profession. It’s not just a problem in the UK and the US. Many K-pop stars have died by suicide in recent years, a trend the paper takes note of.
“Korea has one of the highest rates of suicide in the world,” Musgrave says. Although they don’t have the data as to whether musicians are more at risk, there are factors that could make them high risk such as the “socially prescribed perfectionism” of Korean culture.
No tolerance tactics
In response to their findings, Musgrave and Lamis are calling for a zero-suicide approach to policy to help reduce the risk to musicians’ lives. Zero suicide framework is a seven-element strategy for suicide prevention through holistic care through the workforce, care systems, and treatments.
“There is substantial evidence that the zero suicide approach is effective in reducing suicide among a variety of populations,” Lamis explains. “One example of this is the New York Office of Mental Health. Over 18 months of implementing this approach suicides decreased by 75%. By incorporating the zero suicide approach among musicians, and the music industry, suicides will decrease and mental health outcomes will be improved.”
Musgrave has also commented on dismantling the romanticisation that comes with linking suicide to the music industry: “What we have done for far too long is tolerate early mortality and suicide risk among musicians. We’ve done that as a society because musicians have been represented as being inherently tortured, as suffering for their art. This has got to stop.”
