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Hendrix's synthesized many styles in creating his musical voice and his guitar style was unique, later to be abundantly imitated
by others. Despite his hectic touring schedule and notorious perfectionism, he was a prolific recording artist and left behind
more than 300 unreleased recordings.
His career and ill-timed death has grouped him with Brian Jones, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison as one of contemporary
music's tragic "three J's", iconic 60's rock stars that suffered drug-related deaths at age 27 within months of
each other, leaving legacies in death that have eclipsed the popularity and influence they experienced during their lifetimes.
Musically, Hendrix did much to further the development of the electric guitar repertoire. He moved the instrument to a
higher level, establishing it as a unique sonic source, rather than merely an amplified version of the acoustic guitar. Likewise,
his feedback and fuzz-laden soloing moved guitar distortion well beyond mere novelty, incorporating effects pedals and units
(most notably the wah-wah pedal) with dramatic results.
Hendrix affected popular music with similar profundity; along with earlier bands such as The Who and Cream, he established
a sonically heavy yet technically proficient bent to rock music as a whole, significantly furthering the development of hard
rock and paving the way for heavy metal. He took blues to another level. His music has also had a great influence on funk
and the development of funk rock especially through the guitarists Ernie Isley of The Isley Brothers and Eddie Hazel of Funkadelic,
Prince and Jesse Johnson of The Time. His influence even extends to many hip hop artists, including ?uestlove, Chuck D of
Public Enemy, Ice-T (who covered Hey Joe), El-P and Wyclef Jean. Miles Davis was also deeply impressed by Hendrix and was
a major influence on his move to electrified jazz-rock fusion. Hendrix was listed as number 3 on VH1's list of 100 Best Hard
Rock Artists of all time behind Black Sabbath at the second spot, and Led Zeppelin, ranked number one. Hendrix was ranked
number 3 on VH1's list of 100 Best Pop Artists of all time, behind the Rolling Stones and the Beatles. He has been voted by
Rolling Stone, Guitar World, and a number of other magazines and polls as the best electric guitarist of all time.
In 1992, Hendrix was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
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