If the singer/rapper didn't die, would they still be relevant in today's music?

John Lennon? Is that a joke?

 

Kurt Cobain and John Lennon no question they would be relevant. Tupac maybe. Michael Hutchence probably not so much.

I'm going to throw out a few others that it would've been interesting to see how much relevance they would've continued to have if they lived.

Jimmi Hendrix
Jim Morrison
Janice Joplin
Bob Marley
Marvin Gaye
Stevie Ray Vaughn
Freddie Mercury

 

The Notorious B.I.G.


I don't think he'd be relevant at all if he were still alive.

 

All of the above except Biggie would still be relevant.

 

BUT HE WOULD BE VERY, VERY HUNGRY....

 

Rappers have a short shelf live as far as popularity is concerned. Tupac would probably be a full time actor by now following in the footsteps of Ice Cude, Ice Tee, etc...

 

If Kurt Cobain hadn't have died, Dave Grohl would not be relevant. Or maybe I should change that to "had not have existed".

 

And it Frank Black had never lived, Kurt Cobain would have been just another piss-stain trying to sound like the meat puppets.

 

Agree to this, he had lots potential as an actor, definitely better than any of those guys you mentioned.

Another one who died , Bradley Nowell, I'm sure he would still be relevant, he'll I still listen to sublime.

 

If Kurt Cobain never died then we never would have had "Everlong" .

 

And the meat puppets can thank Cobain for being the reason to why anyone would have any clue as to who the he'll they are.

 

I'm a pretty big Eminem fan...

and he's a huge name...but could you imagine if he died?

 

I used to listen to pac a lot more when he was alive, I listen to Biggie a lot more now.

I actually think all of the artists listed, except Hutchence, would still be relevant today. Maybe not to young people, but they'd have a niche.

 

I am pretty convinced that if Kurt Cobain and Shannon Hoon both lived, Blind Melon would be held in higher regard.

 

I would have hoped this thread turned into a litany of Captain Kurt and Kirk Flood references. Hutchence is who I thought of when I saw the thread title, INXS just put out alot of commercially viable stuff.

Notorious BIG is obviously a redundant pick, but I think a bit more valid than Tupac because Combs turned out to be such an amazing (music) executive and would have made him a producer in his own right. Suge Knight was just right place, right time and enough of a sociopath to fit the image his talent was trying to cultivate.

 

Tupac went to performing arts school and did acting work here and there since childhood, so you're right about him. The rappers who are actors now were mostly middle, lower-middle class kids who couldn't or wouldn't cultivate the imagery that made rap marketable to a broader audience due to urban crime movies and social issues at the time. You could probably liken them to the Jerry Lee Lewises or Bill Haleys of the world who by the mid-60s were basically unusable.

 

I would also be curious to how AC/DC would have progressed if Bon Scott would have lived. They were on the cusp of being huge when he died and the story has always been a lot of Back in Black was already written when he died. Would the album have sold 19 million or whatever at this point with Bon singing.