Pop-culture of a World Without WW1

Star Wars definitely would not exist. A similar sci-fi franchise could exist, but World War II is such a heavy influence on the franchise that removing the war entirely from history would butterfly the films away.
That's not to say that George Lucas or someone similar wouldn't create a similar franchise, but it wouldn't be Star Wars
 
Star Wars definitely would not exist. A similar sci-fi franchise could exist, but World War II is such a heavy influence on the franchise that removing the war entirely from history would butterfly the films away.
That's not to say that George Lucas or someone similar wouldn't create a similar franchise, but it wouldn't be Star Wars
I think we'd have to start well before Star Wars to see where everything was going. Basically what was happening right before was interrupted by WWI. And what sprung forth because of WWI and WWII.
First two things that would definitively be butterflied in their OTL forms are German Expressionism and Soviet Realism. Similar art forms might arise, but their context and details would be very very different.
 

mspence

Banned
Star Wars definitely would not exist. A similar sci-fi franchise could exist, but World War II is such a heavy influence on the franchise that removing the war entirely from history would butterfly the films away.
That's not to say that George Lucas or someone similar wouldn't create a similar franchise, but it wouldn't be Star Wars
I don't know, it was inspired by 1930s Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon movie serials, and space opera existed beginning with E.E. Doc Smith's The Skylark of Space, so something like it might have been made. What might not have happened is the dystopian SF of the Seventies.
 
Consider looking at Lavie Tidhar's Osama. In a world without global terrorism, books about anti-Western terrorist attacks have proven popular throughout the colonized world. As such, imagine such pop culture items appearing in the face of the continued European Occupation of the Southern Hemisphere:


osama_dj_final1.jpg
 

Carl Lindstrom AG is a German record company founded in 1893 in Berlin, Germany. By 1918, it has truly established itself as a global record company, competing with it’s British rival “His Master’s Voice”. It became the holding company for Odeon Records, Parlophone Records (originally "Parlophon"), Beka Records, Okeh Records, Fonotipia Records, Lyrophon, Homophon, and other labels. In the mid 20s, it developed it’s own electrical recording system. The Carl Lindstrom Music Group is known for pioneering recording of world music, specializing in local and folk music traditions and popularizing world music to the Western world. Lindstrom pioneered the concept of affordable records to everyone, further popularizing music in many colonial empires during the colonial period. The word “Odeon” is a catchphrase in many non Western companies for music.
 
First two things that would definitively be butterflied in their OTL forms are German Expressionism and Soviet Realism. Similar art forms might arise, but their context and details would be very very different.
Expressionism including the german branch did already devellop pre WW I. I agree that artists like Otto Dix would paint very different paintings than in OTL. But Der Blaue Reiter f.i. was already created.
A movement that would be much less spread and developed, would be Dadaism. I suspect that the road to abstract art won't disapear, but i suspect that the taste in art will be more conservative, thus any avant garde movement will have more difficulty to really breakthrough. Especially Europe will have this tendency, so i suspect an earlier movement of the centre of modern art to the USA. More European artists will move there.
 
As a fan of Horrors genre, I think that many changes of no World Wars showing the Horror of Humanity mean No famous horror movies or literature never happened. The Only things that might be interested is a type of Horrors is Showing the "Native savagely Violence killing and destroying against the Settlers" In the World without World Wars, Racism will be a lot more expected into this World than ours
 
Star Wars definitely would not exist. A similar sci-fi franchise could exist, but World War II is such a heavy influence on the franchise that removing the war entirely from history would butterfly the films away.
That's not to say that George Lucas or someone similar wouldn't create a similar franchise, but it wouldn't be Star Wars
I guess the dogfights in Star Wars evoke those in WW2, although given that aviation technology predated WW1, I expect that aerial combat would become a bigger part of warfare ITTL as well, and given the constraints of aerial warfare I expect dogfights would also occur for George Lucas to get inspiration from. Other than that, the set-up and course of the Galactic Civil War isn't really similar to either World War, so there's no reason for the Original Trilogy to have a particularly different plot. Without the example of Hitler, though, it's possible Lucas or whoever wouldn't have the idea of an ambitious strongman getting elected and then using a crisis to vote himself unlimited powers, so the plot of the Prequel Trilogy might be rather different. Perhaps instead of being Space Hitler, the Emperor could be Space Napoleon, a successful military leader who seizes power in an armed coup.
 
Consider that women's roles would be severely limited, in probably the worst ways:
It would be slowed down, but the suffragettes had already achieved several victories by 1914, such as New Zealand, Australia, Finland, Denmark (local elections), and some US states.

I think there were also women in places like the UK and some Canadian provinces that had enough money/land to vote.
 
It would be slowed down, but the suffragettes had already achieved several victories by 1914, such as New Zealand, Australia, Finland, Denmark (local elections), and some US states.

I think there were also women in places like the UK and some Canadian provinces that had enough money/land to vote.
Fair enough, but consider that the casual sexism and racism seen in Mad Men would have certainly taken place. Remember that up until the late 1960s , a woman wearing pants was considered "unladylike", with many alluding to the person being a "butch"...
 
I don't see there being space hero shows in the 50s and 60s like Buck Rogers and Star Trek. The German rocket program and the Cold War accelerated spaceflight so much sooner than made any economic sense - and, more to the point, got everyone interested in space as a matter of national pride/staying ahead of the commies in the arms race - that people wouldn't have got excited about space exploration then. What takes their place on TV, other than more sitcoms?
 
I don't see there being space hero shows in the 50s and 60s like Buck Rogers and Star Trek. The German rocket program and the Cold War accelerated spaceflight so much sooner than made any economic sense - and, more to the point, got everyone interested in space as a matter of national pride/staying ahead of the commies in the arms race - that people wouldn't have got excited about space exploration then. What takes their place on TV, other than more sitcoms?
Space operas were popular even before the Second World War.

I think nothing would have changed, except that most likely not space battles would have been popular, but travel and adventures on the alien planets themselves. For example, as in the Martian epic Burroughs.
 
Top