text: which music artist's untimely death was the greatest loss?  why? which musician would have done the most if they'd just stayed alive longer?  my nominations are: robert johnson hank williams jimi hendrix nick drake gram parsons stevie ray vaughan kurt cobain janis joplin  who am i missing?  i'm not asking which of these artists was the greatest artist considering the work they'd already done (personally, i think cobain had already reached his full potential and wouldn't have done much more if he'd lived longer, though i also think he may have made the second biggest impact [after hendrix] of the lot before he died), i'm asking which one would have done the most if they'd lived long enough to reach their full potential.  in my opinion, i think we lost the most with the deaths of stevie ray vaughan, jimi hendrix, and janis joplin.  though i'd be hard pressed to pick between those three.  convince me otherwise for ten points! you have mentioned some great artists... but in terms of a singer, songwriter, and producer, i think that buddy holly's death robbed music of such an incredible talent. i believe that the impact of his death changed rock and roll and the direction that it went in. from a social stand point i believe that the drug related deaths of jim morrison, jimi hendrix, and janis joplin, were the end of the sixties... what ever peace, love, and hope there was in the 1960's died with them... and the government could point to these deaths to weaken the beliefs of the counter-culture. i do have to totally disagree with you though about kurt cobain... he had not even scratched the surface of his talent... he was surrounded by people who gave his art nothing... nirvana would have broken up soon enough if he had stayed alive... kurt had all of the talent... i think he would have evolved beyond the sonic noise of nirvana and been some kind of a cross between bob dylan and michael stipe... we will never know. i have to think of john bonham too... led zeppelin is still the god of rock and the only reason they disbanded was because of his death... zep would have weathered the storm of punk rock and who knows how much great rock they had in them... robert plant truly blossomed as a solo artist but as a group zep is unrivaled.