for Jeff Buckley's X-factor assisted Best Of is pretty awful. The record company pushing him as a messiah that ain't coming back.

Whether you like Kurt Cobain's music or not (I do as it happens), it is undeniable that Nirvana inspired a sea change in the music industry, opening the floodgates for 'alternative' bands to achieve mainstream popularity, marked by the moment that Nevermind took Michael Jackson's 'Dangerous' album off the top of the Billboard Chart.

Their anti-star attitude (while a rather whining, petulant and false act in itself) and way of presenting themselves was also revolutionary and Kurt Cobain was the figurehead of that.

They revitalised a stagnant rock scene (anyone remember Extreme, Mr Big?), but the undertow they brought with them were probably as bad as what went before.

They were a great, unpredictable, impulsive live band and brought danger and excitement back to rock music. I will always remember the first time I heard Smells Like Teen Spirit in the back of my Dad's car aged 13 and thinking 'what the FUCK was that?' and feeling rebellious and excited.

They arguably created the last great musical sea change, and that, coupled with the manner of Cobain's demise, will always make him an iconic figure.

From a personal point of view, they produced three great albums which have stood the test of time. Maybe their impact was disproportionate to the quality of their music - that's a matter of taste. But there's no denying that Cobain is an 'important' figure

I agree with Patrick about the decline in Janis Joplin's stock, but would add that Jim Morrison's, Jimi Hendrix's, Mama Cass's and even Otis Redding's has also slowly but steadily slid down over the years since their deaths.

However, John Lennon, John Bonham, Phil Lynott and Rory Gallagher still recline in splendour alongside Cobain on the summit of rock's Mount Olympus. But it's striking that they died in the Eighties or Nineties. This suggests that there may be some kind of 30-year moratorium (see what I did there?) after the death of rock gods, during which time they are immune from any objective reappraisal and page-turning.

If this hypothesis is sound, right now we should be seeing the until-now-minority view that Sid Vicious was no icon but just a talentless prannock who happened to be in the right place at the right time become the generally received opinion, since he's now stranded on the other side of the 30-year threshold.

sell a huge load of records when they die? I guess it depends when they die. There are difference with them and people like Buckley, Elliott Smith, Cobain, etc. Firstly, pretty much everyone has heard the Beatles and The Stones, yet the publicity around the deaths of the others led people to hear their music for the first time.

Secondly, if you are going to sell loads of records from being a dead rock star, I think it is much better to die young and leave a beautiful corpse than a gnarled 80 year-old one.

Are generally the pioneers and that's why we still respect or remember them. Nobody had done what the Beatles, Dylan, Led Zep and, to some extent, the Stones did before or, at least, on nothing like the same scale with the same impact on popular culture. Since then, give or take the odd Cobain or Lydon, we've pretty much been going round the same loop. The other factor is scarcity. There are now so many artists and, in general, their moment in the spotlight is much shorter before The Next Big Thing comes around.

There is an added interest when people die prematurely but as the members of less popular sixties and seventies bands die in their sixties, seventies and eighties I doubt if we'll see a sudden rise in the sales of Marmalade, Chicory Tip, Boney M or, Clapton excepted, the Yardbirds.

Disregarding the media led herding of nostalgia, surely the longevity of an artist is part controlled by whether you (or I) liked 'em much in the first place. I would take issue with the idea of Phil Lynott or Rory Gallagher somehow being in an ascendancy whilst others, Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix, are sliding. Sure, re-appraisal is allowed, which may be a late realisation that someone previously noted but not necessarily enjoyed (Gallagher, Hendrix) is better than one allowed for at the time, but also that the hyperbole about others (Janis Joplin and Nick Drake, say) was indeed over-egged by bandwagoneers. Death is definitely good for sales, but some deaths are bigger cash cows than others.

are unhealthily in thrall to all past pop/rock to point where they are hampered by being too much aware of it surely, not just deified dead old rock gods. Hard to avoid this effect though.

At impressionable age one can be spellbound by stars, whether working in your own time or earlier. I know I was - it was Beatles, Stones, Hendrix, Morrison from earlier times and Bowie, Smiths from my own times, among others. So I guess youngsters can still fall for these people even now, especially when an early death adds to the allure - the magic spell not broken by ageing. When that infatuation diminishes in later years, maybe you can listen more clearly without distraction of mythology - hence we oldies wonder what the fuss is all about in some cases, but haven't you then lost something of the pleasure?

Critical appraisal simply ebbs and flows. Death is largely irrelevant in this context other than providing a convenient point for the critic to re-assess. Wider, lasting public acclaim is a different thing entirely.

Die young and be forever cast as a tragic, glamorous figure. And by definition there will be a tragic aspect to the early demise – car accident, overdose, shooting. Some commercial success is required here - although even minimal chart action will be sufficient if death follows swiftly. It may help to have displayed some actual talent but again it’s not always necessary. Sid Vicious is a good example – no talent for anything other than outrage, dies, becomes enduring symbol of disaffected youth. John Lydon, survives, becomes middle-aged spokesperson for creamy dairy products.

It’s certainly not enough just to have invented rock’n’roll – Ike Turner, Bo Diddley, John Lee Hooker probably don’t mean anything to the general public, and I’m guessing that their commercial stock did not rise significantly on death. Eddie Cochrane and Buddy Holly on the other hand are probably pretty well known – in at the beginning, commercial success, and died young. Frankly, they’ve got it all.

But then again, survive, RE-INVENT, die old and you may be embraced as a bona fide media legend. Johnny Cash is an example of a stunning later life re-invention. If he had died before meeting Rick Rubin … well, maybe he would have been remembered only as one of the ‘also rans’, set against the commercial behemoth that is the Presley Estate.

Best of all, have a sufficient degree of initial commercial success however and you can transcend almost anything - middle age, dodgy hairstyles, artistic decline, and death - secure in the knowledge that your kids will reap the financial reward and you will ascend to the pantheon. And, joy of joys, it won’t be your old, embarrassing, broken voiced final incarnation that is remembered but your younger, creative former self. When the time comes you can be sure that no-one will be playing selections from ‘A Bigger Bang’.

Recommended to me in the electronica strand last week.

Recall someone wanting recommendation's for Sonic Youth. May i suggest 'daydream nation' and 'bad moon rising'. The former being their recognised classic, the latter an earlier offering, which captures a band at their most ferocious yet melodic.

For one reason or another, cannot imagine another Kurt Cobain occuring.In these days of games, mobile phones and file sharing, I dont believe that young people are as engaged with bands now, as they were in my day, or indeed at the time Cobain died.

Cannot imagine, if say Chris Martin or Alex Turner died, that there would be the same reaction as when Cobain died. There doesn't seem to be the same relationship between fan and artist as there was.

I can only really think of one artist who, if to die prematurely, would cause an outpouring of grief, and that would be Morrissey

Today is the 74th, or would have been, Birthday of the man who created the dead pop star eulogy thing. Strange to think he was about to go on his proverbial way to bankruptcy in 1977.
Then 'Hey Presto' he is today the richest dead pop star to ever have existed on this planet.
In fact he is a one man industry providing for his family and the city of Memphis.
No one will ever eclipse him in our lifetimes.......just a pity it wasn't Duster Bennett!