WI: No Hank Williams AND no Johnny Cash?

Yeah another "no (celebrity here)" thread, but i think this one would actually make a huge impact in music. What if both Hank Williams AND Johnny Cash were both never born or never went into music. How would the country scene and for that matter, the whole popular music scene be affected? Would the scene ever move away from gospel and cowboy songs?
 

Deleted member 5719

This is so deeply wrong it disturbs me deeply.

There will always be a Johnny Cash. He is the Highwayman.
 
This is so deeply wrong it disturbs me deeply.

There will always be a Johnny Cash. He is the Highwayman.

There were four Highwaymen. They each sang a verse on the song.

I think the nickname that you might have been looking for is "The Man In Black".

Anyway, I'm not sure how much things would have changed with Johnny Cash being eliminated. With the way that country music ignored him after the beginning of the '80s and then metamorphosized into the "pop country" of today, it's almost like he didn't exist OTL. Outlaw country probably takes a minor hit, but I can't think of anything beyond that.

Hank Williams will have a bigger impact, though. Rock music will change, and Hank Williams, Jr. will never exist (the elimination of "Are you ready for some football?" is somewhat significant). And again, outlaw country will take a hit.
 

Deleted member 5719

There were four Highwaymen. They each sang a verse on the song.

I think the nickname that you might have been looking for is "The Man In Black".

Check my username before you presume to lecture me on Mr Cash and his legacy.:rolleyes:

I'm referring to the theme of the song "The Highwayman", from which the group took its name. It refers to a Highwayman who dies over and over again but is reborn undefeated every time, until he is a raindrop/starship captain of some kind.

And so is our lord Johnny, mortal, yet never-ending.
 
How exactly do you think the absence of Johnny Cash would affect music and society, then?

I remember that Johnny Cash's people put out an ad of his iconic "flipping the bird" picture during the '90s because no one paid attention to the stuff he was releasing on American Recordings. It sucks, because the American Recordings material was stellar. So, I just have to wonder how obviously his legacy is going to stand out and how much an ATL world without Johnny Cash would be different.
 
Both Carter USM and Sons & Daughters would be a song down.

Seriously: this kind of artistic influence-missing timeline is impossible. Someone else would fill the gap, but on the balance of probabilities they'd be lesser talents. So all I can reasonably add is, 'Hank Williams? Meh.'
 

Deleted member 5719

Difficult to say. I think that his great contribution to country music was as a bridge between the Woody Guthrie influenced country/folk music of the likes of Kris Kristoffersen and Bob Dylan, and the Nashville scene.

He managed to be intensely political without being a soap-box leftist, or even admitting to any politics at all. The pure humanity of his recordings, and his belief in redemption stand him apart from every other artist I can think of (particularly Man in Black, Peace in the Valley, Ira Hayes and Folsom Prison).

I'd say that without him, country could have descended into a kind of Nashville/Memphis Pop (Garth Brooks style vomit), with American Folk becoming a separate genre (I know it is now, but you would find bands who today identify as country or alt-country calling themselves Folk).
 
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