Hendrix, Rory Gallagher and SRV. Imagine what the blues and the world would be like with those 3 big hitters still around.

Easy: Duke Ellington

Seriously, so many great suggestions from other people.

I'm going to throw out Neil Peart, although I'm not sure he'd appreciate it. Selfishly, I'd love to have him back.

I would only suggest Ian Curtis if anti-epilepsy medication has advanced significantly since 1980. Dude had it rough.

John Lennon

Eyedea

SOPHIE. Hyperpop hasn’t been the same since her passing.

Elliot Smith, no contest. Best singer songwriter ever.

Chuck Schuldiner. Greatest death metal vocalist to ever live.

Peter Steele

Biggie Smalls

toots and the maytals

Chuck Schuldiner, frontman of death metal pioneers Death, dude died of cancer in 2001 at the age of 34. I never had the chance to see them play live but their records are incredible.

Cliff Burton, Bass player of Metallica, died when the band's tour bus crashed and he was crushed underneath it. The band lost part of its soul and it took them a very long time to get over Cliffs death. Seeing videos of him playing live makes one understand what was lost, as he was an incredible musician.

On a more general note every artist that died very young, many made a big impact to their genre or even to a wider audience without it ever knowing.

Stan Rogers. Would pretty much double the number of available sea shanties

Justin Townes Earle.

Bryn Jones aka Muslimgauze

Nightbirde

Piotr Grudziński of Riverside. It's clear to me their discography went completely different way than it could have after he died being only 41.

FZ

Can't believe nobody else has mentioned him yet

Bob Marley.

Max Bennett. He's not famous famous but he's well known enough in the jazz scene. He played with Frank Sinatra, Dizzie Gillespie, and recorded on countless studio sessions. I knew him personally and I think was his last student before he passed. Some people closer to him than me told me one of the last things he said was "I need to give jcabral9 his lesson" and it makes me tear up whenever I think about it. I was too young to understand most of his concepts--I wish I could know him as an adult and professional musician myself.

Colter Wall, not that he's dead yet but im gonna save it if he dies before me.

JS Bach.

The only two I would consider otherwise are both alive (Lindsey Stirling and Amy Lee). They even have a collaborative piece 🎉

Ricardo Iorio