The Beatles. Split April 1970.
Probably draft in a keyboard player, maybe a 2nd guitarist and go more Prog Rock to guaranteed success but maybe lower critical acclaim. Embrace Punk and kick out the 2 new members and actually make a half decent raw Punk album. Amble through to New Wave and make a couple of complete New Wave bangers but no good album(s). Split at Lennon’s death in 1980.
Whenever I think of an extended Beatles timeline I just imagine them at Live Aid, all sporting mullets and hideous paisley shirts tucked into their jeans. Macca’s probably got one of those guitars without a headstock.
Probably would have been Pink Floyd#2
Don’t think they’d have added new members. Would’ve just got even worse I reckon.
They’d have finally played that gig in Libya
you can’t really say they would’ve split in 1980 because john’s timeline would’ve changed if he was still in the band
think in reality the direction would’ve been even more paul led and the others would resent him further. but theyd ultimately just be four guys playing the songs written individually by three of them. the real question is who would’ve voiced thomas the tank engine.
might’ve been interesting to see where they went as a live band, and how they used the advancing tech - but interesting within the context of the current timeline where they didn’t
Could imagine them doing a back to basics one off record as an experiment that would have sounded like their early stuff in the late 70s, probably their response to punk stuff happening. Maybe sonically like The Nerves or something, would have been cool.
With Ringo busy, they would’ve gone with Pete Burns I reckon
Ringo would be on the Identity Parade on Never Mind The Buzzcocks
Their 23rd album would get a 4.5 from Pitchfork that’s mainly complaining about dads
I often try & think of what Hendrix would have gone on to do if he hadn’t died
…and it’s kind of impossible to imagine
… but somewhere in there Jimi does session work on Bowie’s ’Berlin trilogy’ and then forms a state-of-the-art psychedelic space-jazz-rock supergroup with Herbie Hancock & a young lad called Prince that explodes in a hail of bad drugs around 1980/81 & Jimi replaces Adrian Belew in the Talking Heads live show
in King Crimson
Fripp would never allow that
With a bit of luck they’d have sounded like Wings of course 
I think he would have dropped off in terms of commercial popularity in the 70s but still continued to do stuff and put out increasingly obtuse trippy records.
I reckon he would have a bit of a resurgence with all the 80s guitar shredders like Van Halen, Steve Vai etc and would feature on their records/done joint tours etc.
I’m just very amused that Adrian Belew has got a few mentions on here this week after having never seen him mentioned anywhere before Guardians of The Galaxy 3. Its like when you buy a car and notice that model everywhere!
Confirmation bias innit
Indeed! Gonna have to listen to his stuff now I reckon so I guess its worked.
Yeah, maybe but it’s a bit of a weird one because all those 80s rock guitar gods pretended that they got their mojo from the blues & associated themselves with the resurgence of older legends like John Lee Hooker, BB King & Muddy Waters when it’s obvious that Vai, EVH, & prob Belew & Ronson were massive Hendrix fans and took loads from him
Used to be obsessed with this blog that focuses on this exact concept