AH Challenge: Jazz Dominant

With any POD post-1950 have jazz become the overwhelmingly dominant musical style in America. Because it would probably be too difficult to get rid of the crooners, "pop-jazz" (or "neo-swing" perhaps) can be a strong undercurrent, but jazz's other sub-genres should make up the lion's share of the market. But keep rock out on the fringes- a few surfers with jangly Spanish guitars and a few folk singers in Greenwich Village.

And if you think the 1950+ POD is no good, tell me why and propose a year of your own.
 
Dig, man, jazz is the dominant musical style in America. It's just grown so much it doesn't recognize itself.
 
One of the famous early pioneers of rock is going to have to be jazz-influenced rather than blues-influenced, or simply die early and be replaced by a jazz musician. I'm gonna go with Elvis Presley dying young (say, in 1951) and therefore not influencing Buddy Holly, who goes on to be a wildly popular jazz artist. Blues-based rock and roll, probably called "rhythm and blues" or simply R&B, will likely stick around, but be a fairly minor genre, like jazz-based rock is in OTL.
 

Xen

Banned
Bill Haley and the Comets are killed in a bus crash before they release Rock Around the Clock. Elvis Presley remains a Gospel Singer with some crossing into Country & Western. Miles Davis begins to pioneer Hard Bop and influences other acts including Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly. Instead of groups forming with just electric guitars and drums, they also incorporate traditional jazz instruments such as the saxophone.

This in turn influences groups in Britain, with Johnny and the Moondogs (OTL equivalent to the Beatles) becoming a huge musical act in the 1960s, and ushering in the era of Pop Jazz, and later still Acid Jazz.
 
Top