I’ve always considered myself a glass-half-full type of guy, so I’ll start by giving our loyal San Diego State University readers some good news: everyone’s favorite music blog, J.A.M, has returned from its summer hiatus with a vengeance and the intention to deliver another fun-filled semester full of riveting and up-to-the-minute news. Yay!
But in reality everyone else considers me a half-glass-empty type of guy, which leads me to the bad — but mostly sad — news. First up, the fact that I’m writing this article means that the summer sun is about to set (as is the sweltering heat, hopefully) and we’re all that much closer to returning back to school — with a 12 percent tuition increase. Hooray school!
On an even more depressing note, English singer Amy Winehouse died this past weekend in her London home. She was 27.
I was originally going to write a short obituary, but reconsidered after every news website on Earth did that days ago. Instead, I’m going to focus on interesting little tidbits of coincidence that have come up in relation to Winehouse’s death.
Winehouse has joined the infamous “27 Club.” The infamous “27 Club” lives in rock ‘n’ roll lore as a curse that has claimed the lives of some of the greatest music icons in modern history, all at the age of 27. The curse seems to have begun with Brazilian Jcomposer and folk artist Alexandre Levy in 1892 and has since added big names such as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain and Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones. While I don’t believe in curses — except the Madden cover curse — this does seem like a striking trend. On the other hand, most musicians haven’t died at 27, so I guess that ends that.
Two days after her death, Microsoft posted a tweet that encouraged followers to download “Back to Black” on Zune. After severe backlash for its controversial PR move, Microsoft later tweeted, “Apologies to everyone if our earlier Amy Winehouse ‘download’ tweet seemed purely commercially motivated. Far from the case, we assure you.” Some 25,000 copies of “Back to Black” were sold last weekend — making it hard to believe any tweets about Winehouse aren’t commercially motivated.
R.I.P Amy Winehouse
