Could, say, the lack of a hit song end up causing society and/or our day-to-day lives as we know it to change, for better or worse?
What Pop Culture POD would cause the biggest change to our society?
- Thread starter peepingsignal
- Start date
Quite possibly the Supreme Court voting in the Miller case to allow obscenity instead of continuing to ban it? It would pretty much cement porn's entry into the mainstream that was ongoing at the time and would drive the religious right into an enormous frenzy (possibly causing Carter to lose the '76 election if Reagan managed to get in there, which would have enormous ramifications since Reagan would almost certainly lose in 1980), it would also change pop culture in an enormous way.
Somehow prevent the rise of the CD, which totally changed the way we listen to music (chosing favourite tracks or favourite parts of tracks, skipping the fillers, thus making the consumer deciding how the product actually "looks" like).
While it I'm not sure I can disagree on a factual basis, I think that the word
mixtape
should be mentioned here, regarding the bolded bit.
So...
Preventing the rise of the compact cassette, which possibly affects the computer
industry (mostly through its effects on home computing) as well
as music-listening habits.
(Incidentally, you can tell that at least one Swede has been involved in that
English Wikipedia page.
)As for the actual question asked...
Yes, possibly. I think there are actually some obvious examples, but I can't
actually recall any at the moment.
I'd argue that the biggest (Post-1900) POD would be "No George Lucas." Jaws may have been the first Blockbuster but Star Wars was the true beginning of The Blockbuster Era Of Movies. It saved Star Trek: It was the reason Paramount decided to greenlight Star Trek: The Motion Picture. I'd argue that Star Wars, alongside its contemporary Dungeons & Dragons, was pretty much the beginning of a unified Geek Culture, the same Geek Culture that dominates Pop Culture and, indeed, in some ways, actual culture, to this day. Say what you will about the fact that he clearly completely tuned out after Return of the Jedi but not just all geeks but all of modern culture owes George Lucas a massive debt. Emperor Norton I wrote two posts on this subject in a thread I started a while back on said POD.
(Note: PoeFacedKilla, you are free to skewer me now)
(Note: PoeFacedKilla, you are free to skewer me now
)
Bingo. Like maybe if Buddy Holly's plane not crashing causes some US states to succeed from the rest of the country, or maybe consumer technology is more advanced i.e. Hovercars by 1980. These of course would never happen, it's just a quick example.
He was washed up in 1980 and only became St. John because he got shot.
Much bigger change would be him and McCartney falling out in 1961, or Macca never heading along to that church fete. Or him just having a mental block and forgetting how to play Raunchy.
Reagan's film career going worse (or better) seems like a pretty big one.
Nancy Davis not going into film would work too, as her father was the one who influenced Reagan's conservatism.
Other than Reagan, no Hays Code seems like a potentially big one, although I wonder if things like the Catholic League of Decency, and other non-industry groups could produce the same result
Nancy Davis not going into film would work too, as her father was the one who influenced Reagan's conservatism.
Other than Reagan, no Hays Code seems like a potentially big one, although I wonder if things like the Catholic League of Decency, and other non-industry groups could produce the same result
Yeah but it wouldn't have been very good.
He had 5 years as "house-husband" to come up with his 1980 album Double Fantasy. 14 tracks on that album, 7 of which are Yoko songs, so 5 years and he did 7 songs.
Cleanup time? Dear Yoko? They can be discounted straight away.
So, that leaves us with Just Like Starting Over, I'm Losing You, Beautiful Boy, Watching The Wheels and Woman.
Just Like Starting over is a good song, I'm losing you is not. Beautiful Boy is ok but very sickly sweet. Watching the Wheels is good.
Woman is quite good, but the chorus? "I love you, yeah yeah, do-do-do-do-doooo!" Even Macca would have thought 'A bit soppy'.
Look at the stuff on Milk & Honey and it's even worse. Living On Borrowed Time is an abomination. Nobody Told Me is poor. I'm Stepping Out is dreadful. Forgive me my little flower princess? Jesus H Christ.
Look back earlier and you'll see Rock N Roll was not very good, Walls & Bridges was average, Mind Games was poor (though the title track is very good), Some Time In New York City was embarrassing. His first two solo albums are great (though Imagine is a marked drop on Plastic Ono Band) and the singles like Cold Turkey and Instant Karma! were great. But he stopped being relevant in 1972 and his work went over a cliff when he moved to America.
I'd argue that the biggest (Post-1900) POD would be "No George Lucas." Jaws may have been the first Blockbuster but Star Wars was the true beginning of The Blockbuster Era Of Movies. It saved Star Trek: It was the reason Paramount decided to greenlight Star Trek: The Motion Picture. I'd argue that Star Wars, alongside its contemporary Dungeons & Dragons, was pretty much the beginning of a unified Geek Culture, the same Geek Culture that dominates Pop Culture and, indeed, in some ways, actual culture, to this day. Say what you will about the fact that he clearly completely tuned out after Return of the Jedi but not just all geeks but all of modern culture owes George Lucas a massive debt. Emperor Norton I wrote two posts on this subject in a thread I started a while back on said POD.
(Note: PoeFacedKilla, you are free to skewer me now
Yes and no. Butterflying George Lucas would have a major impact on modern pop culture, but I don't think his absence would be as influential as you seem to think. Paramount had started and abandoned a number of Star Trek projects by the time ST:TMP was released in 1978, including a new TV series, a miniseries and a movie-of-the-week. They would have done something with Star Trek eventually. It is also worth remember that a number of critically and financially successful genre films were released around the same time as Star Wars, including Close Encounters, Superman and Alien. I think where the absence of George Lucas might be felt is in a possible lack of emphasis on movie merchandising, which he got Fox to give him in exchange for his direction fee, which turned out to be a pretty astute business decision.
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In one of his last interviews (it may even have been the last), Lennon showed sympathies for the N.Y.C. punk/No Wave scene of the time and even went to the point of saying that Yoko's scream-therapy-like performances may have been an influence on that. Considering Yoko Ono's involvement in the Fluxus scene before and the interplay between the arts and punk, he had a point. Maybe he'd have done the Brian Eno thing, producing some of the lesser known No Wave acts.
We never know for sure about his later output. Let's not forget that the Rolling Stones or Bob Dylan did some pretty mediocre stuff throughout the 1980s. So did Macca. I guess Lennon would have gone the Macca route as well: knocking out conventional albums, but also keeping an experimental edge by doing side projects.
Dylan, the Stones and Neil Young had a bad '80s. As of course did Macca, though I rate McCartney II and Tug Of War highly. John almost certainly would have too. Can you imagine the indignity of him trying to experiment with synthesisers and such?
My point is aside from a few cherry picked songs John had a bad '72-'80 and was very unlikely to suddenly start putting out good stuff again. He had five bloody years away from it to get a few songs together for Double Fantasy and came up with 7 tracks, half of which are rubbish and the "good" ones are a shadow of his best work. Compare Woman to Love, I'm Losing You to Well Well Well and they are nowhere near. Milk & Honey shows what his next record would have been like (ie, somehow way way worse. Experimenting with reggae of all things, that voice he uses on Living On Borrowed Time...urgh) so any 'comeback' would have to be after Milk & Honey.
Faint hope, guys.
Another contender: Walt Disney gets hired as an ambulance driver in 1919, and never becomes an animator.