Any ideas what popular culture would be like in the aftermath of the CSA? Would there be movies like Star Wars or TV shows like Star Trek, the Simpsons or Buffy the Vampire Slayer?
In my opinion the entertainment industry in the 191 universe, following In at the Death, would likely be somewhat more conservative and restrained than the entertainment industry in our timeline, but still not entirely different.
One of the biggest factors might be the desire of the post Second Great War US government to suppress anything it felt was too subversive or seditious, and I wouldn't be surprised if there were actually someone in the US government who carries the ominous sounding title of Director of Societal Hygiene. The Dept. of Societal Hygiene (or something similar) might be responsible for the monitoring of all content created by the television, movie, and music studios, and to make sure that none of the said entertainment material being released to the public is too offensive, distasteful, or unduly obscene.
Maybe certain waivers would occasionally be issued by the Dept. of Societal Hygiene for artistic purposes. For example: a Hollywood studio wants to make a realistic film about the lives of ordinary soldiers during the Second Great War, such a lifelike film might include partial nudity, graphic sex scenes, and gratuitous violence. In order to release such a film the studio would have to have it first approved by monitors from the Dept. of Societal Hygiene. Does money sometimes get exchanged under the table, and does questionable content sometimes get released upon an unsuspecting populace? Maybe.
I think that the government would quickly realize the effect that popular music has upon teenagers and young people of the 1950s & 60s, and the government would probably do its best to limit the amount of rebelliousness portrayed in Rock and Roll music.
I imagine that popular music performers of the 1950s would mostly be a string of one hit wonders, performing novelty hits, and that the performers themselves don't earn the types of royalties per record that performers in our timeline do. No one really gets rich or famous until a performer by the name of Jesse Presley begins attracting a loyal following of bobbysoxer fans has he tours county fairs during the summer of 1955. Presley is invited to perform on national television after a major news magazine puts him on their front cover. The government responds to the perceived threat by inducting Presley into the US Army and stationing him at a remote base in Northwest Canada for the next four years. Presley's fickle fans forget about him during his stint in the army, and he spends the rest of his life as a policeman in Memphis, Tennessee.
Over in Europe, I think that the entertainment industry might be more liberal, especially in Britain where people are looking for an escape from the drudgery of the postwar years. By the early 1960s talent scouts from the US arrive in Europe in search of new music acts to sell to the US music consumer. In Europe music acts tend to have more staying power, so when the Beatles are brought to the US in 1963, they are not so easily disposed of.
Also, I imagine that during the 1960s there might be a burgeoning black market industry supplying illegal vinyl records to US college students, particularly in the New South.
I think that the main reason for allowing Rock and Roll to exist would be the growing popularity of transistor radios, first introduced in the early 1950s. Music executives quickly realize that the complex jazz and big band sounds of the 1930s and 40s do not translate well through a tiny two inch hand held speaker, and in order to increase the sales of handheld radios, an entirely new more simpler genre of music must be allowed to exist, and that genre would be Rock and Roll.
As time goes by, and home music systems begin to improve throughout the 1960s, I think that there would be a lot of bands similar to the Carpenters in our timeline, but less bands similar to Cream or Blind Faith. Again, bands more progressive than Cream or Blind Faith might have their music distributed on bootleg records that have been etched into used xray film, but generally they are not well known beyond certain college campuses. In the 80s there would be no Madonna, but probably be several sanitized performers similar to Cyndi lauper, Whitney Houston, or even a straight Elton John.
Another factor in the development in the entertainment industry would be the fact that Germany was not knocked flat as it was in our timeline, and an undefeated Germany would very likely serve as a catalyst for the development of home consumer electronics. I think that color television similar to the Sony Trinitron would be common by the late 50s, and that the first home computers would start appearing during the early 1970s. I think that the development of the Internet would be very different, with the governments of the US, and Germany, much more interested in controlling content than they are in our timeline. Perhaps in order to launch a website someone would first have to obtain a license similar to ham radio operator's license before being allowed to publish things online.
Throughout the 1960s through the 80s I think that there would be a lot of television situation comedies similar to Hogan's Heroes, Mork & Mindy, and the Odd Couple, but not so many shows similar to All in the Family, The Brady Bunch (a show about a mixed family resulting from divorce) or Three's Company. However, I think that there would be plenty of gritty cop dramas similar to Adam 12, The Streets of San Francisco, or maybe even a sanitized version of Charlie's Angels. Government funded educational television programming would also be common.
In our timeline it wasn't until the early 1970s when it became common place for TV shows to depict married couples sleeping in the same bed. I think that it would take another 25 years or longer for television producers in the 191 universe to show the same thing due to the conservative nature of society.
I was imagining an analogue of Hugh Hefner creating a men's magazine similar to Playboy in the 191 universe, but when his magazine goes on sale in former CS states which have been readmitted into the Union, people living in those areas are so outraged that they riot and burn down the stores where the magazines are being sold. From that point on men's magazines are only sold through subscription, and are delivered via mail in a heavy duty manila envelope.
I think that something similar to Star Trek would exist, but rather than being on a mission of exploration, the ship is instead on a constant mission to protect the boundaries of the United Space Republic from an alien race whose collectivist culture strongly resembles Marxism. Almost every episode is similar to a WWII submarine movie in our timeline in which the crew is running an enemy gauntlet or is hunting enemy shipping.
I think that an analogue of Star Wars might exist, but due to cultural differences it would be told from the Empire's point of view. In this version of events Princess Leia is a spoiled rich girl who rebels against her families traditional values, joins a terrorist organization, and then uses her charms to seduce a young farm boy to join her band of terrorists. This version of Princess Leia wears a belly shirt, has a gold chain connecting her ear to her nose ring, habitually ingests a spice to enhance her Force abilities, and shaves half of her head. The terrorists destroy a government installation designed to distribute emergency aid and peacekeeping troops purely for the cause of promoting anarchy in the galaxy. It is not until after the Peace Star has been destroyed that Luke learns that he has been tricked, and that both he and Leia are related to a popular senator.