- Jan 4 Mort Garson, Canadian-American composer ("Our Day Will Come") and Moog synthesizer pioneer, dies of renal failure at 83
- Jan 5 Irene Reid, American jazz singer ("I Must Be Doing Something Right"). dies at 77
- Jan 8 Clyde Otis, American songwriter and music producer (b. c. 1924)
- Jan 10 (Walter) "Pete" Candoli, American jazz, big band, and session trumpeter (Woody Herman; Stan Kenton; Henry Mancini; The Brothers Candoli), dies of prostate cancer at 84
- Jan 13 Sergei Larin, Lithuanian operatic tenor, dies at 51
- Jan 17 Rod Allen [Bainbridge] British pop-rock singer and bassist (Fortunes - "You've Got Your Troubles"; "Here It Comes Again"), dies of cancer at 63
- Jan 18 Frank Lewin, German-American composer and music theorist (Yale, 1971-92), dies at 82
- Jan 19 John Stewart, American pop-folk singer, guitsrist, banjo player (Kingston Trio, 1961-67), and songwriter ("Daydream Believer"), dies of a stroke at 68
- Jan 20 Tālivaldis Ķeniņš, Latvian-Canadian composer, organist, and pedagogue, dies at 88
- Jan 22 Ștefan Niculescu, Romanian composer, dies at 80
- Jan 25 Evelyn Barbirolli, English musician (b. 1911)
- Jan 29 Margaret Truman, American presidential daughter, singer and writer (Murder at FBI), dies at 83
- Jan 30 Gunnar Reynir Sveinsson, Icelandic classical, choral, and jazz composer (Samstæður; Fyrir þitt friðarorð - For Your Peace), dies at 79
Country Singers
Jazz Singers
Opera Singers
Pop Singers
Rappers
Rock Singers