Late last year I turned 50 (yeah, thanks) and so I noticed when there was a fiftieth anniversary of something more than I usually would. Seemed like a lot of things (University Challenge, Bond films, Jamaican music etc) and bands (Status Quo, The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys, The Beatles, etc) were also fifty years old. Apart from the Beatles, all those examples are still active, still writing new material, still releasing new albums, still touring.
Other, younger, bands have extended their existence partially through changing their lineup. Yes is an obvious example - I think Steve Howe commented that maybe their children could continue the band into a next generation. Similarly, The Albion Band have had over 100 people play with them, and recently Ashley Hutchings passed the baton on to his son to start a completely new lineup of the band - this one could run and run.
Napalm Death are another band with no original members, also The Sugababes, Thin Lizzy, and more.
(edit: I just remembered Brian Downey is back in Thin Lizzy again - I sit corrected)
My own band has been going for over twenty years, and currently has a mostly new lineup, with nobody from the first year of the band playing in it, and only a few from before 2010. But that will change, and change again. Several members of the band weren't even born when we first started. I can easily imagine my band continuing for a century or two, with constantly shifting lineups.
It makes me wonder if some bands could go on potentially forever. What do you think?
Edited by Stool Man - January 14 2013 at 04:43