This is just a quick something I threw together, based on a thought experiment that was basically “How long can the development of hard rock/heavy metal be put off?” It’s not the most likely scenario in the world, but I think it is at least plausible. I might put up a Part 2 if there is enough interest.
All events in italics are OTL.
January 17, 1962 (POD): In Clarksville, Tennessee, a young black guitar player by the name of Johnny Allen Hendrix is killed in a car accident. His body goes missing; local police are confused by reports of mysterious angelic figures taking it away.
Mid-1962: Roger Daltrey fails to pass John Entwhistle on the streets of Shepherd’s Bush; Entwhistle and Pete Townshend thus never join the Detours, and the Who never form. Townshend will become an artist who plays guitar as a hobby; Entwhistle will become a tax collector; Daltrey a minor pop star; Keith Moon a notable delinquent and occasional drummer.
May 27, 1963: Bob Dylan releases “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan”. Now considered one of his best albums, the introspective and poetic acoustic guitar/harmonica folk will prove to be a major inspiration for countless artists.
April 19, 1964: With Graham Bond’s health rapidly deteriorating, the Graham Bond Organization collapses. Eric Clapton will never take a liking to them; thus, Cream will never form.
March 1965: The Yardbirds score a major hit on both sides of the Atlantic with “For Your Love”. Eric Clapton, disgusted by the new pop direction of the band, defects to John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. The Yardbirds ultimately decide against asking noted session player Jimmy Page to join as a replacement; thus, neither Page nor Jeff Beck get involved with the Yardbirds, remaining session guitarists for the moment. The remaining Yardbirds eventually decide on Chris Fanning, a childhood friend of lead singer Keith Relf.
December 3, 1965: The Beatles release Rubber Soul. In a radical departure from their previous sound, much of their blues, pop, and Motown influences are sacrificed for folk influences, courtesy of Jon Lennon’s love of Bob Dylan.
May 1966: A restless Eric Clapton leaves John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers; however, as noted, he has no idea who Jack Bruce or Ginger Baker are, and thus Cream does not form. Clapton sets up a band of his own, called the Rattlers; their debut, which comes out in August, does not make much of a commercial impact, but is received with great favor by the blues scene.
1966: The psychedelic movement begins to take root; the Mamas and the Papas, Jefferson Airplane, and the 13th Floor Elevators (as well as a lot of other far less well-known bands) form and put out albums, while the Beatles and Beach Boys put out a pair of revolutionary albums (Revolver and Pet Sounds) that pioneer a new genre known to overeducated snobs as “baroque psychedelic pop.”
October 28, 1966: The Kinks release Face to Face, their fourth album. An almost total departure for the band (caused by the near-mental breakdown of frontman and songwriter Ray Davies), the Kinks abandon their previous feedback-filled garage sound, deriving influence instead from music hall and traditional British humor/character assassination. It is also rock’s first concept album, with the songs revolving around a common theme and bridged by sound effects (this almost happened IOTL, but Ray Davies was forced to abandon the idea by his record company). Unlike OTL, where it largely slid out of public consciousness, Face to Face s almost immediately hailed as one of the greatest albums of the decade, despite being a commercial failure (rather like Pet Sounds IOTL).
1967: The Grand Psychedelic Revolution occurs; spurred on by the beyond-legendary Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, pretty much all musicians in all genres from traditional folk to jazz to Motown to hardcore blues start making at least moderate concessions to psychadelia. However, without either the Jimi Hendrix Experience or Cream around, there is no great union of psychadelia, ‘60s pop, and traditional blues as per OTL. Though there remains a blues underground consisting of bands such as the Rattlers, Ten Years After, Fleetwood Mac, and Savoy Brown, it remains just that-an underground, co-existing with avant-garde bands such as Pink Floyd and the Soft Machine. The main brands of psychadelia are the Beach Boys and Beatles style of pop, Dylan derived psychedelic folk, and Jefferson Airplane/Byrds derived dark folk-pop.
July 1 and July 5, 1968: The Band and Creedence Clearwater Revival put out their debut albums. The former helps cement the gently flourishing new genre of art-folk; the latter is an effective combination of psychadelia and southern rock.
July 10, 1968: The Yardbirds formally dissolve, having not had a major hit in over a year. Their former frontman, Keith Relf, and drummer, Jim McCarty, have spent the last few months thinking over an ambitious project-they plan on finding a way to merge psychadelia, folk, and classical music. The problem: such a band would recqire quite a bit of instrumental talent, something neither of them have in appreciable quantities.
Fortunately, they stumble across a pair of people thinking much the same way as them: Keith Emerson, a flamboyant, classically-trained piano virtuoso who had a hobby of collecting every type of keyboard known to man, and Jimmy Page, an omnigenre guitarist who was willing to do anything but make background music for airports, which was his current employment. Rounding out their ensemble with an ambitious young man named Greg Lake on bass, they called themselves Renaissance; their debut album, which came out in December, was a surprise hit.
1969: As psychadelia and the counterculture begin to fade, pop music turns in a new direction-the new thing is progressive rock. Derived mainly from Renaissance, progressive had as its end goal a perfect medley of pop and classical music. Noted new bands in this vein are Jethro Tull (Ian Anderson and Tony Iommi, basically), Sunrise (Rick Wakeman, Annie Haslam, Steve Hackett, and Michael Giles), and Overlord (Bill Bruford, Ian MacDonald, and Steve Howe), and Deep Purple (OTL). There is in general far more folk (and occasional country and bluegrass) influence on the prog scene then in OTL.
As the 1970s begin, the major trends in music are:
Progressive, as described above.
Trad British, also known as “let’s copy the Kinks”. Almost entirely British (with a couple of American participants), and focused on social observation/parody, with influences from folk and British music hall.
Underground blues, a mostly non-commercial underground of guitar-based virtuosity; Eric Clapton’s the Rattlers, Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac, and Alvin Lee’s Ten Years After lead this party.
Avantgarde, a totally non-commercial genre with bands like Arthur Brown, Pink Floyd, the Soft Machine, and Gong taking the darker strains of psychadelia and weird electronics and running with them.
Stay Tuned.
All events in italics are OTL.
Metal Defiled: A History of Pop, Part I
January 17, 1962 (POD): In Clarksville, Tennessee, a young black guitar player by the name of Johnny Allen Hendrix is killed in a car accident. His body goes missing; local police are confused by reports of mysterious angelic figures taking it away.
Mid-1962: Roger Daltrey fails to pass John Entwhistle on the streets of Shepherd’s Bush; Entwhistle and Pete Townshend thus never join the Detours, and the Who never form. Townshend will become an artist who plays guitar as a hobby; Entwhistle will become a tax collector; Daltrey a minor pop star; Keith Moon a notable delinquent and occasional drummer.
May 27, 1963: Bob Dylan releases “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan”. Now considered one of his best albums, the introspective and poetic acoustic guitar/harmonica folk will prove to be a major inspiration for countless artists.
April 19, 1964: With Graham Bond’s health rapidly deteriorating, the Graham Bond Organization collapses. Eric Clapton will never take a liking to them; thus, Cream will never form.
March 1965: The Yardbirds score a major hit on both sides of the Atlantic with “For Your Love”. Eric Clapton, disgusted by the new pop direction of the band, defects to John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. The Yardbirds ultimately decide against asking noted session player Jimmy Page to join as a replacement; thus, neither Page nor Jeff Beck get involved with the Yardbirds, remaining session guitarists for the moment. The remaining Yardbirds eventually decide on Chris Fanning, a childhood friend of lead singer Keith Relf.
December 3, 1965: The Beatles release Rubber Soul. In a radical departure from their previous sound, much of their blues, pop, and Motown influences are sacrificed for folk influences, courtesy of Jon Lennon’s love of Bob Dylan.
May 1966: A restless Eric Clapton leaves John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers; however, as noted, he has no idea who Jack Bruce or Ginger Baker are, and thus Cream does not form. Clapton sets up a band of his own, called the Rattlers; their debut, which comes out in August, does not make much of a commercial impact, but is received with great favor by the blues scene.
1966: The psychedelic movement begins to take root; the Mamas and the Papas, Jefferson Airplane, and the 13th Floor Elevators (as well as a lot of other far less well-known bands) form and put out albums, while the Beatles and Beach Boys put out a pair of revolutionary albums (Revolver and Pet Sounds) that pioneer a new genre known to overeducated snobs as “baroque psychedelic pop.”
October 28, 1966: The Kinks release Face to Face, their fourth album. An almost total departure for the band (caused by the near-mental breakdown of frontman and songwriter Ray Davies), the Kinks abandon their previous feedback-filled garage sound, deriving influence instead from music hall and traditional British humor/character assassination. It is also rock’s first concept album, with the songs revolving around a common theme and bridged by sound effects (this almost happened IOTL, but Ray Davies was forced to abandon the idea by his record company). Unlike OTL, where it largely slid out of public consciousness, Face to Face s almost immediately hailed as one of the greatest albums of the decade, despite being a commercial failure (rather like Pet Sounds IOTL).
1967: The Grand Psychedelic Revolution occurs; spurred on by the beyond-legendary Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, pretty much all musicians in all genres from traditional folk to jazz to Motown to hardcore blues start making at least moderate concessions to psychadelia. However, without either the Jimi Hendrix Experience or Cream around, there is no great union of psychadelia, ‘60s pop, and traditional blues as per OTL. Though there remains a blues underground consisting of bands such as the Rattlers, Ten Years After, Fleetwood Mac, and Savoy Brown, it remains just that-an underground, co-existing with avant-garde bands such as Pink Floyd and the Soft Machine. The main brands of psychadelia are the Beach Boys and Beatles style of pop, Dylan derived psychedelic folk, and Jefferson Airplane/Byrds derived dark folk-pop.
July 1 and July 5, 1968: The Band and Creedence Clearwater Revival put out their debut albums. The former helps cement the gently flourishing new genre of art-folk; the latter is an effective combination of psychadelia and southern rock.
July 10, 1968: The Yardbirds formally dissolve, having not had a major hit in over a year. Their former frontman, Keith Relf, and drummer, Jim McCarty, have spent the last few months thinking over an ambitious project-they plan on finding a way to merge psychadelia, folk, and classical music. The problem: such a band would recqire quite a bit of instrumental talent, something neither of them have in appreciable quantities.
Fortunately, they stumble across a pair of people thinking much the same way as them: Keith Emerson, a flamboyant, classically-trained piano virtuoso who had a hobby of collecting every type of keyboard known to man, and Jimmy Page, an omnigenre guitarist who was willing to do anything but make background music for airports, which was his current employment. Rounding out their ensemble with an ambitious young man named Greg Lake on bass, they called themselves Renaissance; their debut album, which came out in December, was a surprise hit.
1969: As psychadelia and the counterculture begin to fade, pop music turns in a new direction-the new thing is progressive rock. Derived mainly from Renaissance, progressive had as its end goal a perfect medley of pop and classical music. Noted new bands in this vein are Jethro Tull (Ian Anderson and Tony Iommi, basically), Sunrise (Rick Wakeman, Annie Haslam, Steve Hackett, and Michael Giles), and Overlord (Bill Bruford, Ian MacDonald, and Steve Howe), and Deep Purple (OTL). There is in general far more folk (and occasional country and bluegrass) influence on the prog scene then in OTL.
As the 1970s begin, the major trends in music are:
Progressive, as described above.
Trad British, also known as “let’s copy the Kinks”. Almost entirely British (with a couple of American participants), and focused on social observation/parody, with influences from folk and British music hall.
Underground blues, a mostly non-commercial underground of guitar-based virtuosity; Eric Clapton’s the Rattlers, Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac, and Alvin Lee’s Ten Years After lead this party.
Avantgarde, a totally non-commercial genre with bands like Arthur Brown, Pink Floyd, the Soft Machine, and Gong taking the darker strains of psychadelia and weird electronics and running with them.
Stay Tuned.
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You, sir, are evil!