I don't think any of the KY or VA cities would be either big enough or central enough - Richmond may be the capital, but it's a second-tier city in terms of population and location. I'm guessing it will be something like DC - a government town, and cosmopolitan by CSA standards, but not much there other than government.
I'm of the mind that the Hampton Roads/VA Beach area may reach a sufficient level of development to be considered a major city. Maybe not one of THE major cities like Houston or Atlanta, but maybe #9 or 10 in the top ten at best; much of this will depend on tourism/beach season fans, and shipping. Ditto for Charleston, which I agree might also become a cultural center if not well populated.
Were any Floridian cities developed and livable enough at the turn of the twentieth century to support a movie industry? My understanding is that before air conditioning, southern Florida was only semi-habitable...
AFAIK the "semi-tropics" were more in the South Florida/Everglades region, which both Orlando and Tampa are north of by a good amount. However, if that's still too steamy there's always Panama City or Pensacola in the Panhandle, which while still subtropical like the rest of the south isn't THAT bad. One of the reasons that LA became the movie capitol of the US is that it's on the Pacific (ergo, lots of beautiful backdrops to be shot using the sunset), as well as a steady and sunny climate. Those kind of factors play a big part in shooting a movie earlier on in cinema history, so they will likely do so again ITTL.
True enough, and Northern music will be weird by our standards. The CSA's music may sound recognizable to us, because it will have the African-American and white Southern influences that dominate American music, but the USA as a separate country with no Great Migration won't have these things. Maybe the dominant influence on USA music would come from Eastern Europe - "gypsy jazz" or even klezmer-jazz. Probably a lot of Italian influence too, and maybe Middle Eastern if the USA draws significant numbers of Lebanese and Syrian immigrants. Northern music will be eclectic, and I can't even imagine what the South will do with it.
Yikes, I'd kinda be willing to sample that. I get the image that a sort of proto-World/Trance music scene may also come into play with sufficient Indian/Middle Eastern immigration much earlier. But don't forget, the North will likely develop its own syncretism of Southern music with their own influences (something like Italo-Southern "opera rock", perhaps?
Also, assuming rap/hip-hop isn't butterflied away, I also think it would grow in the CSA as well given the higher black population compared to the north. Furthermore, themes of oppression and/or segregation could well feed into the fire behind its formation, making it even more controversial (and therefore, more popular/palatable to the 18-25 crowd regardless of race). Of course, the same applies here as above WRT cross-border influences and styles.
I get the feeling that the CSA in 2012 is something like the 1970s in OTL - i.e., that the civil-rights struggle is a relatively recent memory, and that it may have been more protracted - but that's just a feeling. Hopefully our host will enlighten us further.
Perhaps; a lot depends on race relations between the end of the War of Confederate Independence* and the WWII/mid-20th. Century era. While a Confederate government would seem a likely (and logical) harbinger of doom for black rights, a Southern victory would also do away with some (not all) animosity against their ex-slaves as scapegoats for losing the war.