Open wide and say 'aha'

Does it seem to you that there's a load more tours being pulled these days because of the singer having throat problems?

You're not wrong, according to the New York Times. Turns out it's not that throats are getting damaged more easily, but that it's a lot easier to spot problems:

Dr. Steven M. Zeitels, the Boston surgeon who operated on Adele to fix bleeding in her larynx, said that over the last 15 years the use of fiber-optic cameras that can scan the vocal cords for minuscule injuries and abnormalities has become common. It is now possible to spot problems like bleeding, nodules and cysts earlier and to take swift action to fix them, he said.

“Is there some epidemic? No,” he said. “The only thing different happening is the singers know better how to take care of themselves, the doctors know better how to take care of them, and what has been happening always is just getting noticed.”

I suspect there's also an element of insurance companies being more bullish on their demands for the problems to be fixed early on, too.