this whole Beatles were just another rock band thread leads to the thought-
no Beatles = no audities list = no pop music landscape as we know it.

It was the Beatles success that made it possible for everyone else to jump on
the bandwagon and labels signing up every mop top in sight that made 
it possible
for a lot of bands we love to exist and survive (the crappy ones 
flailed - the good ones
moved on)

What one thinks of the Beatles themselves is a moot point - they made 
the whole thing
possible just as Elvis made Gene Vincent possible, etc, etc...

The rock landscape would be radically different.... The Stones would 
have broken up long ago
and/or stumbled around the British R&B circuit for a few years still 
doing covers... Pink Floyd and
psychedelia and all that.... may have happened but in a decidedly 
different way...

anyway... interesting to think about.... what if the Beatles didn't happen?

Discouraged by their flop early singles in Canada and the US, The 
Beatles broke up and/or
stayed a unique British phenomenon ala Cliff Richard, etc.. 
eventually hosting a kids morning show...

Ed Sullivan, meanwhile, at the airport, couldn't believe the wild 
reception that.... The Shadows!
were getting and promptly got them booked for a North American debut.....

UK instrumental groups invade America!!!


The Shadows movie converts America to the hip new "instro" sounds - 
Jim McGuinn & gang see
the film in LA and immediately start up The Byrdseeds, a unique folk 
instrumental combo.

The Beach Boys "stack o tracks" LP is a multi-million seller as the 
US instro combos strike back
at the Brits...

and here on the Instroteers list, Jaimie Vernon has raised a hornet's 
nest of controversy by suggesting
The Shadows were no big deal.....

ralph alfonso meanwhile suggests anyone involved in the Latin 
Boogaloo scene is not a real musician.....








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