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The 27 Club in Media and Popular Culture

Now that I have hopefully painted the general idea of what the ‘Club’ really is for you, dear reader, let’s discuss the extent of the conspiracy and the media surrounding it. The conspiracy of the 27 Club begins with Robert Johnson, as previously mentioned in my last post. As told by Amber Clark in Medium Magazine, the ‘members’ began ‘selling their soul(s) to the devil in return for talent, fame and fortune’ with Johnson, exchanging short-lived fame and immense talent with the ultimate price of death at 27, and creating art with their experience. Clark writes:

‘Two very notable songs Robert wrote: "Cross Road Blues" (or just "Crossroads") and "Me and the Devil Blues," have both contributed to the myth of Johnson's pact with Lucifer, including the part about the dark angel coming to collect his debt. In the latter song, Satan comes knocking on the singer's door early in the morning. "Hello Satan," says Johnson, "I believe it's time to go."’

Intertwined with this theory is the Illuminati and the New World Order, something that I will go into further detail with in a later post. The Illuminati is considered an order that has the intention of taking over the world through controlling popular media, often combined with the notion of devil worship and ‘selling souls’, in line with the theories regarding the Club.

The 27 Club and the varying conspiracies surrounding it has garnered much pop culture attention, especially following Kurt Cobain’s suicide, when the term was coined. The presence of the 27 Club is felt in various forms of media and art, including the work of those who are sadly ‘members’, as previously mentioned. Much music referencing the Club is written, often, in fear of falling victim to the fate of the ‘members’. For example, Pete Wentz, of emo cult band Fall Out Boy (one of my personal favourites), has been quoted as being ‘stoked to make it past 27’ in a 2010 Guardian article, even going as far as to write a song about the ‘hedonistic experiences’ of the rock star lifestyle. Some art even goes as far as to consider the legacy of dying at 27 and the immortality of those who died at that age, both in terms of longevity in pop culture and within the idea of satanic conspiracy. 

However, the very existence of these forms of artistic expression questions the very basis of the main conspiracy regarding the 27 club. If selling your soul is necessary for talent and fame, why doesn’t the 27 Club have more members? If legacy is immortality, what does this mean for conspiracy theorists and the way they view art? More importantly, why does the tragedy of the deaths of these talented artists garner such a response from both other artists and the general public? This is a question specifically that I am interested in answering in the next few posts.

Vox has done an interesting video about the intertwinement of mental illness and art regarding the club outside of conspiracy theory – give it a watch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AEWefmSTBM&ab_channel=Polyphonic 

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