Mozart effect.

Today's interesting fact has to do with the Mozart effect.


In double blind tests, children were played various types of music and then tested with various mental challenges. The music included Mozart, Pop Music, Drums and random discordant noises.

Children did best in the tests after random discordant noises and Pop Music, but in all cases the effects were temporary and soon lost.

However in double blind tests it was found that learning to play a musical instrument especially if done over a long period of time, can the increase the IQ and has been shown to make beneficial changes to the brain tests have shown that the effects were maintained.

Today’s interesting fact has to do with the musically inclined and the age 27.

Since 1908, at least 45 musicians and singers who are considered to being important to the development of music have died on reaching 27 years of age.

A short list that I've looked up is as follows:

Name	What they did.
Brian Jones	Rolling Stones founder and guitarist/multi-instrumentalist.
Jimi Hendrix	Pioneering electric guitarist, singer and songwriter for The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Band of Gypsys.
Janis Joplin	Lead vocalist and songwriter for Big Brother and the Holding Company, The Kozmic Blues Band and Full Tilt Boogie Band.
Jim Morrison	Lead singer, songwriter and video director for The Doors.
Kurt Cobain	Founding member, lead singer, guitarist and songwriter for Nirvana.
Louis Chauvin	Ragtime musician.
Robert Johnson	Bluesman. Recorded very famous and influential set of 29 songs that influenced many famous musicians after him.
Nat Jaffe	Blues musician.
Jesse Belvin	R&B singer and songwriter.
Rudy Lewis	Vocalist of The Drifters.
Malcolm Hale	Original member of Spanky and Our Gang.
Dickie Pride	British rock and roll singer.
Alan "Blind Owl" Wilson	Leader, singer and primary composer of Canned Heat.
Arlester "Dyke" Christian	Frontman and vocalist of Dyke & the Blazers.
Linda Jones	R&B singer.
Les Harvey	Guitarist for Stone the Crows.
Ron "Pigpen" McKernan	Founding member, keyboardist and singer of the Grateful Dead.
Roger Lee Durham	Singer and percussionist of Bloodstone.
Wallace Yohn	Organ player of Chase.
Dave Alexander	Bassist for the Stooges.
Pete Ham	Keyboardist and guitarist, leader of Badfinger.
Gary Thain	Former bassist of Uriah Heep and The Keef Hartley Band.
Cecilia	Spanish singer
Helmut Köllen	Bassist with 1970s German prog rock band Triumvirat.
Chris Bell	Singer-songwriter and guitarist of power pop band Big Star and solo.
Jacob Miller	Jamaican reggae artist and lead singer for Inner Circle.
D. Boon	Guitarist, lead singer of punk band the Minutemen.
Alexander Bashlachev	Russian poet, rock musician and songwriter.
Jean-Michel Basquiat	Painter and graffiti artist; formed the band Gray.
Pete de Freitas	Drummer for Echo & the Bunnymen.
Mia Zapata	Lead singer of the Gits.
Kristen Pfaff	Bass guitarist for Hole and Janitor Joe.
Richey James Edwards	Lyricist and guitarist for Manic Street Preachers.
Stretch	Rapper
Fat Pat	Rapper and member of Screwed Up Click.
Freaky Tah	Rapper and member of the hip hop group Lost Boyz.
Sean Patrick McCabe	Lead singer of Ink & Dagger.
Rodrigo Bueno	Argentinian Cuarteto singer.
Maria Serrano Serrano	Background singer for Passion Fruit.
Jeremy Michael Ward	The Mars Volta and De Facto sound manipulator.
Bryan Ottoson	Guitarist for American Head Charge.
Valentín Elizalde	Mexican banda singer.
Orish Grinstead	Founding member of '90s R&B group 702.
Lily Tembo	Zambian musician.
Amy Winehouse	British singer/songwriter.

Lots of other individuals many have considered as influential in their fields of expertise have also died at 27. These include sport stars, scientists, politicians and many more.

27 seems to be a special age and I have heard some suggesting there must be a conspiracy, but I think it is just that some people die at 27.

I was sitting in the pub last week, enjoying the smell of stale beer sans tobacco smoke. I was in the corner, no one was near me as I enjoyed the taste of the local ale. None of that American stuff in a bottle, but real ale.

Without realising it, I was humming the tune of a popular song, one I guess I either heard on a radio or as the background music from the TV, when the landlord came over and asked me to stop humming. Not that he minded humming, but apparently someone from the British Music Police had told him that in order to have live music, he needed to pay them money. He claimed to have jokingly said that no one would be able to hum or sing anymore, only to be told that "Yes, if you let people sing or hum without paying, you will be liable to a fine, even if you don't pay them."

This took me back. I thought they wanted us to sing these songs to ourselves, but I guess they just want us to listen to them, even if we are private citizens.

Sad world we live in now.