Since even before the 20th century, chord progressions of I IV V vi playing on different keys have been gradually standardised. How do you prevent this from happening ?
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You've chosen quite a niche topic and it's very tricky to respond to a general statement such as the one you have made. If you had a more specific idea that needs fleshing out you might get a better response.
I have provided 2 vague ideas but I would like to preface this by saying I'm not well-versed on musical development so it could be complete BS and it may well be approaching ASB level in some instances,But here we go:
One way would be if we(as humans) didn't appreciate/grasp melodies, and the rhythmic/percussive side of music was the focal point throughout musical history( proper cavemen style , just beating sticks,drums etc. )
If Percussion instruments paved the way and we seen as the key/lead/ 1st in all musical pieces then would we have chord progressions, or even instruments capable of doing that when chords melodies etc. wouldn't be deemed musical to listen to? Because our whole inbuilt sense of musicality was different from the start?
Or if the way music is commonly used with a progression/melody accompanied by other instruments set to a beat was flipped so actually the beat was the focal point? what need would there be for chord progressions if the rhythm/beat/percussion was all anyone focused on?
(Feel free to say this is all completely rubbish btw,as I said it's a bit wacky even to me)
Another way(and possibly more realistic) what if what we think of as time signatures or even just musical notation was never invented/standardized, so there were no regular time signatures or patterns to invent progressions on,therefore if everything was written in free time or improvised, progressions would exist but never be standardized across the board and instruments of types or even different keys.
In terms of western music that would require a POD no later than before the 13th century when mensural notation was devised,
or even earlier if Rhymic nodes in early medieval times were never noted down as semi-standard musical notation. no idea about elsewhere though.
Could that ripple out to answer your question?
Sorry but it's an answer to your "sad bump",I hope it helps if only to eliminate some possibilities....