One of the best things in Marvel comics when I collected them as a kid was a comic called "What If" where it had alternate universes where hypothetical changes occured. They often where dramatic and apocalyptic and as it was an alternative universe deaths aplenty happened and twilight zone type plot twists happened. It was those opportunities to see what would happen if Uncle Ben had survived etc. People in history have wondered what would have happened if Kennedy had survived the assassination or Napoleon had not tried to invade Russia etc. So...................

What is a musical what if you could imagine.

One I was thinking about was what if the songs for Justified had been given to Michael Jackson by the Neptunes and this would have turned into a Michael Jackson album. It certainly would have been a better album than Invincible in my books.

So give me your picks. What if songs had been given to different artists, what if some singers had not died or been killed, what if bands had not been split up, or what if.....................................

Around the time John Lennon was coming back into music, there were discussions on maybe doing a Beatles reunion. But John was killed before it got any further. Also, I wonder what would have happened if several movie ideas for The Beatles in the 1960s had not been turned down like Up Against It, Lord Of The Rings, & A Talent For Loving. Up Against It might have hurt their image back then so I don't think Brian Epstein would have wanted that to be made in the first place.

I wonder if Randy would have been made an official member of The Jacksons if Jermaine had not left the group when they went to Epic. If not, things might have been different, since their most known song (Shake Your Body) was co-written by Randy. Jermaine's career would have definitely been different. He probably wouldn't have had the same clout at Epic than at Motown to get Switch & DeBarge record deals. So would have Janet married James DeBarge then? Also hits like Let's Get Serious & Let Me Tickle Your Fancy might not have happened. Jermaine probably wouldn't have been on the Mahogany soundtrack either. I think if the group had never left Motown, Off The Wall & Thriller would have never happened. I wonder if Mike would have still been given a part in The Wiz though.

How different would have George Michaels career been if he continued to be a member of Wham! instead of going solo?

Would Genesis have reached the same level of popularity if Peter Gabriel had never quit and would have Phil Collins decided to be a singer with a solo career or just remain a drummer?

What if bands like Journey, Pink Floyd, & Fleetwood Mac had became really successful with their original lineups? Then the careers of Steve Perry, Linsey Buckingham, & Stevie Nicks might not have been a thing. Same for acts who became successful later like Billy Joel, Michael Bolton, Kenny G, Don Henley, Daryl Hall, John Oates, Huey Lewis, Terence Trent D'Arby, Rick James, Neil Young, etc. What if the early bands they were in had became popular?

How would have Elvis Presley's life been different if he was allowed to do the movies he wanted to do, instead of doing whatever Colonel Parker told him to do.

I wonder what Sam Cooke would have done if he had not been killed. What kind of records would he made in the 1970s?

MickyDolenz said:

Around the time John Lennon was coming back into music, there were discussions on maybe doing a Beatles reunion. But John was killed before it got any further. Also, I wonder what would have happened if several movie ideas for The Beatles in the 1960s had not been turned down like Up Against It, Lord Of The Rings, & A Talent For Loving. Up Against It might have hurt their image back then so I don't think Brian Epstein would have wanted that to be made in the first place.

I wonder if Randy would have been made an official member of The Jacksons if Jermaine had not left the group when they went to Epic. If not, things might have been different, since their most known song (Shake Your Body) was co-written by Randy. Jermaine's career would have definitely been different. He probably wouldn't have had the same clout at Epic than at Motown to get Switch & DeBarge record deals. So would have Janet married James DeBarge then? Also hits like Let's Get Serious & Let Me Tickle Your Fancy might not have happened. Jermaine probably wouldn't have been on the Mahogany soundtrack either. I think if the group had never left Motown, Off The Wall & Thriller would have never happened. I wonder if Mike would have still been given a part in The Wiz though.

How different would have George Michaels career been if he continued to be a member of Wham! instead of going solo?

Would Genesis have reached the same level of popularity if Peter Gabriel had never quit and would have Phil Collins decided to be a singer with a solo career or just remain a drummer?

What if bands like Journey, Pink Floyd, & Fleetwood Mac had became really successful with their original lineups? Then the careers of Steve Perry, Linsey Buckingham, & Stevie Nicks might not have been a thing. Same for acts who became successful later like Billy Joel, Michael Bolton, Kenny G, Don Henley, Daryl Hall, John Oates, Huey Lewis, Terence Trent D'Arby, Rick James, Neil Young, etc. What if the early bands they were in had became popular?

How would have Elvis Presley's life been different if he was allowed to do the movies he wanted to do, instead of doing whatever Colonel Parker told him to do.

I wonder what Sam Cooke would have done if he had not been killed. What kind of records would he made in the 1970s?

In some way things work out the way they work out, but some things such as the death of Sam Cooke really beg that question.

Elvis could have made some better movies but his music was what moved people. As much as he hated those movies, they kept a stream of cash coming in. I think drugs killed his musical motivation until his final years where he tried to summon up some musical magic.

The Beatle reunion may for a one-off concert may have been good for the fans but I don't think they were ever coming back. We have the iconic rooftop gig.

Phil COllins would have done some solo work but without the profile of genesis he may not have reacehed the top. We got Genesis PHil Collins and Peter Gabriel songs - win win situation.

I think early succes for some of those acts could have been a double edged sword. It was the failures that gave them the hunger and experience to succeed.

George Michael made the right choice and I think it was only a matter of time for him to leave. Andrew Ridgely's album was awful. Why share the spotlight with a Ringo who can't drum or has no charisma. What did Ridgely even do in WHam? Wait, I don't want to know.

• Jimi Hendrix and Miles Davis recorded together as planned.
• Teddy Pendergrass never gets in that terrible accident.
• Johnny Wilder Jr lead singer of Heatwave never gets in his horrific car accident. Does Rod Temperton direct more of his Michael Jackson songs ("Rock With You", "Thriller", "Off the Wall","The Lady in My Life") to Johnny and Heatwave??! I've actually heard Johnny turned down "Rock With You"!
• What if Sly Stone avoids the pitfalls of drug use??

BTW I am a HUGE fan of Marvels What If series, loved it!! Great topic!

MickyDolenz said:

I wonder what Sam Cooke would have done if he had not been killed. What kind of records would he made in the 1970s?

I think Sam would have went on to become huge figure in the music industry as a business man, been even more involved in the civil rights movement, and would have released music that would have rivaled Marvin Gaye's "What's Goin On" in social significance. His death remains a major loss.

[Edited 6/1/19 17:35pm]

I would have loved to seen what Jimi Hendrix would have done throughout the 70's.....A Beatles reunion at Live Aid would have been cool...Rick James' film "A Spice Of Life" would have been interesting....P's film "The Dawn" (not "Graffitti Bridge) would have been cool too...A concert film/docu of P-Funk's 1977 "P-Funk Earth Tour"..I would have loved that....The Commodores 1990 reunion with Lionel...I had my fingers crossed for that.

In the mid 1980s, there was an announcement about a movie that was going to star Janet Jackson & The Time (including Morris Day). It was said that Janet's B-side song You Need Me was written for it. When the Condensate album was released, Jimmy Jam mentioned The Time movie in an interview, but said nothing about Janet being in it. He said that the movie was going to be loosely based on The Time's early days. Jimmy also said that Prince took over their movie and it became Graffiti Bridge.

I read the Beastie Boys book that they released recently. They mentioned that there was plans for them to do a movie after License To Ill became big. King Ad-Rock said he was glad it didn't happen. They didn't mention the Tougher Than Leather movie though. I wonder what that album would have been if they hadn't kicked Kate Schellenbach out of the group. Kate said in the book that she wasn't that comfortable rapping anyway, and that it was mostly Rick Rubin's idea to get rid of her because he didn't like the sound of female rappers.

What if Shuggie Otis hadn't left the music business behind? Could he have become the star Prince eventually became?

What would R&B in the 21st century have been like if acts like D'Angelo, Maxwell and Erykah Badu had been more prolific? Seems to me the best and brightest of this century have remained on the sidelines.

I wanted to leave these types of what ifs out, but . . . what if Biggie and Pac had in fact lived?

namepeace said:

What would R&B in the 21st century have been like if acts like D'Angelo, Maxwell and Erykah Badu had been more prolific?

Neo-soul never really caught on to general audiences because you can't dance to it. Who goes to a club to hear low tempo music or blast it out of their car stereo system? So it wouldn't have made any difference if these kinds of acts put out more music. The vibe is too Afrocentric/ankh as well for the mainstream. There's a reason Rihanna, Beyoncé, & Chris Brown are more popular than India.Arie, Anthony Hamilton, or Jill Scott. Neo-soul is not fun party music. It generally appeals more to a older audience, that's why it only gets played on urban contemporary radio. Not the regular R&B/hip hop stations where they play Usher or Ella Mai. Bruno Mars gets played on both formats. It's the same reason trap is way more popular than jazzy sounding conscious hip hop.

MickyDolenz said:

namepeace said:

What would R&B in the 21st century have been like if acts like D'Angelo, Maxwell and Erykah Badu had been more prolific?

Neo-soul never really caught on to general audiences because you can't dance to it. Who goes to a club to hear low tempo music or blast it out of their car stereo system? So it wouldn't have made any difference if these kinds of acts put out more music. The vibe is too Afrocentric/ankh as well for the mainstream. There's a reason Rihanna, Beyoncé, & Chris Brown are more popular than India.Arie, Anthony Hamilton, or Jill Scott. Neo-soul is not fun party music. It generally appeals more to a older audience, that's why it only gets played on urban contemporary radio. Not the regular R&B/hip hop stations where they play Usher or Ella Mai. Bruno Mars gets played on both formats. It's the same reason trap is way more popular than jazzy sounding conscious hip hop.

All of what you say is as true today as it was 20 years ago. The Rap and Beats monolith (from New Jack to Trap) could not have been slain by neo-soul, which was much more of a niche than a trend.

But I asked the question because each of them have had almost a decade between releases at some point in their discographies (D 2000-2014, Maxwell 2001-2009, Badu 2010-present). Of course that's their prerogative. What if they'd made more albums? What impact would they have had on R&B and perhaps music as a whole? I wasn't really asking the question from an industry standpoint.

I wonder how A Toot And A Snore In 74 sessions would have come out if John Lennon hadn't been drunk & high and if it would have been released.

There was a report in the mid 1980s that Michael Jackson was going to release an album of Beatle songs. If this had happened, would it have been as successful as Bad. And what songs were chosen? There's obviously Come Together, but I've heard a rumor that Strawberry Fields Forever was recorded too.

How different would the 2300 Jackson Street album have been if Mike & Marlon hadn't quit the group? I guess it would have gotten better promotion. Would Jermaine record Word 2 The Badd later if this had happened? Especially since LA & Babyface produced a song on the 2300 album and Jermaine's entire You Said album. They co-wrote Word.

I wished that Bob Fosse had directed Chicago for the screen starring Gwen Verdon, Chita Rivera and Jerry Orbach. It would have been awesome

I would have liked to have seen Stephanie Mills play Dorothy in The Wiz (1978) instead of Diana Ross.

***What if funk queen Betty Davis had not given up after her third album? Would she have finally found an audience during the disco era....or in the early 80s?

***What if the Beatles had never broken up? How would they have evolved during the 70s?

***What if Terry Kath (guitarist in the band Chicago) had not died? I think he would have went solo and became a hugely successful solo act in the 80s.

What if ... Prince had stayed with the Revolution? ...

What if ... Roger Waters had stayed with Pink Floyd? ...

What if ... The Smiths hadn't split up? ...

What if ... Kurt Cobain had lived? ...

DaveT said:

What if ... Prince had stayed with the Revolution? ...

What if ... Roger Waters had stayed with Pink Floyd? ...

What if ... The Smiths hadn't split up? ...

What if ... Kurt Cobain had lived? ...

What if ... Vanity had done Purple Rain and stayed in Vanity 6?

What if ... the Sparkle Soundtrack (1976) had featured the cast from the film, instead of Aretha Franklin?

What if ... The Jacksons never left Motown?

Goddess4Real said:

What if ... Vanity had done Purple Rain and stayed in Vanity 6?

It would have been really good for her career.Purple Rain (the movie) was a massive success and I know that a second Vanity 6 album would have been huge.

On the other hand,her solo album 'Wild Animal' was a flop and the movie that she did ('The Last Dragon') was only moderately successful.

SoulAlive said:

Goddess4Real said:

What if ... Vanity had done Purple Rain and stayed in Vanity 6?

It would have been really good for her career.Purple Rain (the movie) was a massive success and I know that a second Vanity 6 album would have been huge.

On the other hand,her solo album 'Wild Animal' was a flop and the movie that she did ('The Last Dragon') was only moderately successful.

-I think Vanity had to get out from under Prince's control and at least try to make it on her own. At least she was paid well.

-IMO, Colonel Parker was the worst thing to happen to Elvis. A horrid man.

SoulAlive said:

It would have been really good for her career. Purple Rain (the movie) was a massive success and I know that a second Vanity 6 album would have been huge.

What kind of a career did Apollonia have after Purple Rain? A massive success does not necessarily guarantee anything. Terence Trent D'Arby, Norah Jones, & Alanis Morrisette all had a huge selling album, but the ones after it did nowhere near the same amount of business.

MickyDolenz said:

SoulAlive said:

It would have been really good for her career. Purple Rain (the movie) was a massive success and I know that a second Vanity 6 album would have been huge.

What kind of a career did Apollonia have after Purple Rain? A massive success does not necessarily guarantee anything. Terence Trent D'Arby, Norah Jones, & Alanis Morrisette all had a huge selling album, but the ones after it did nowhere near the same amount of business.

but Vanity is not Apollonia I think Vanity definitely had talent.Participating in Purple Rain and doing a second album with Vanity 6 would have been a wise move,imo.She would have been a major superstar instantly.

...

[Edited 7/21/19 13:07pm]