World Mapping
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How does a Confederate victory in the American Civil War affect the history of music, as the CSA and USA are not one nation?
How does a Confederate victory in the American Civil War affect the history of music?
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Jazz is probably butterflied. Even if you take the best case scenario where slavery doesn't survive long term, it will still take at least 15-20 years and that's being extremely optimistic.
I’d imagine due to the extreme racism of the CSA, music like blues and jazz, if they still come into being, would be heavily suppressed. Rock and roll may thus not come into being, or at least not in the way we’d recognize it. Which would also mean no punk rock, no heavy metal, no prog rock……
Could honestly see those three genres forming a long-term counterculture in the CSA, if they’re not butterflied of course. Jazz already had a rebellious attitude to it, anyways, though it could be butterflied of course, as it took form several decades after the civil war.
I’d also say rap music and hip hop is probably butterflied away as well, which would lead to some significant changes. Pop music probably stays, but without figures such as Michael Jackson, it’s not recognizable. Perhaps folk music stays much more popular?
In any case-modern music is for all intents and purposes unrecognizable. The South’s black population had a huge influence on music.
Could honestly see those three genres forming a long-term counterculture in the CSA, if they’re not butterflied of course. Jazz already had a rebellious attitude to it, anyways, though it could be butterflied of course, as it took form several decades after the civil war.
I’d also say rap music and hip hop is probably butterflied away as well, which would lead to some significant changes. Pop music probably stays, but without figures such as Michael Jackson, it’s not recognizable. Perhaps folk music stays much more popular?
In any case-modern music is for all intents and purposes unrecognizable. The South’s black population had a huge influence on music.
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Ragtime I feel gets suppressed if not outright butterflied. It didn’t really come into being until the 1890s, from what I can tell
Warren Zevon's eight studio album Mr. Bad Example includes one mention of "went to Atlanta law school" which becomes mildly controversial in the early winter of 1991 over the president of the University of Atlanta's comments that "actually we have a very nice law school, thank you very much".
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Ragtime is more of a "white" genre (not entirely but compared to jazz - an oversimplification would be that jazz was the fusion of ragtime and blues) and existed in the Upper South and Midwest. So it isn't directly blocked by the continuation of slavery, but the world is different enough by the turn of the century that the music will be different.
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A century later, The Band records "The Night They Burned the Stars and Stripes" which later becomes a #3 hit for Joan Baez.
An old post of mine at https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...ixie-if-the-csa-had-won.415726/#post-14716727
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It seems that around 1915 Tin Pan Alley discovered the American South--"Dixie"--as some kind of paradise. Yes, of course there had been many songs about the South from minstrel days on, but now it became a virtual industry, with New York songwriters who had probably never gone as far south as Philadelphia writing about moonlight, magnolias, and mammies. "(They Made It Twice as Nice as Paradise) And They Called It Dixieland", "Rock-A-Bye Your Baby With A Dixie Melody" "In 1960 You'll Find Dixie Looking Just the Same" etc. are some songs from that era. (Around the same time, songwriters also discovered the even more paradisal Hawaii. See http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/uMsAAOSwr7ZW6HLP/s-l300.jpg for "Since They're Playin' Hawaiian Tunes in Dixie," an obvious attempt to combine the two crazes. [1] (Ian Whitcomb, author of *After the Ball*, a history of popular music, once asked some old-time Alleymen why there was this sudden eruption of Dixie and Hawaii circa 1915, and never really got a satisfying answer. They mumbled about it being "the thing" or "what people wanted" and added, "Aren't you more interested in today, kid? Look, I got a great new song here that you can really rock up." https://books.google.com/books?id=Z8whDTQtXowC&pg=PA1935) The craze soon died down somewhat, but the South long remained a favorite theme of American popular music.
Now here's my what-if-the-South-won-the-ACW question: We'll assume there were no further wars between the USA and CSA, and indeed that diplomatic relations between the two republics are at least correct. But *culturally* will northerners be as likely to glorify a place that beat them in a war? Would there be as many sentimental (northern) songs about Dixie if it had won the war?
[1] An ideal song from 1917-18 would combine Dixie, Hawaii, and Beating the Heck Out of the Kaiser. However, I have not yet been able to locate such a song.
Garrison
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Jazz, blues, Soul, Rock & Roll, Rhythm & Blues, Rap, basically gone I would imagine. Arguably the dominant theme of the music business for much of the 20th Century was repackaging black music to be palatable to a white audience.
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