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Elvis. Just to see what happens.
Nothing.
Elvis didn't invent anything musically, he was just the first white guy to do what Black guys had been doing.
If it wasn't Elvis, it would have been someone else a couple months later.
Actually, that was one thing I considered. If he hadn't become a superstar by never writing a single song, would it have changed the industry's thoughts on using pretty faces to sell other people's songs?
“Though I'm not the first king of controversy
I am the worst thing since Elvis Presley
To do Black music so selfishly
And use it to get myself wealthy (Hey!)
There's a concept that works
Twenty million other white rappers emerge
But no matter how many fish in the sea
It'd be so empty without me” - Eminem
Well maybe he was the one with the charisma to do what black guys were doing.
A lot more piano probably.
Jerry Lee Lewis was poised to be one of the first white rock and roll superstars until his career was rocked with scandal. Had that happened it is very possible that the piano would become the predominant instrument in white rock.
The genre already has its roots in jump blues and boogie woogie, both piano driven styles. Little Richard and Fats Domino were at the top of the charts.
Had a piano player been the king of white rock then you would have likely seen a lot more artists picking up that instrument rather than the guitar.
Jerry Lee Lewis became fairly successful in Country after his Rock career faltered. Most country musicians still play the guitar rather than the piano though.
The most popular country music star contemporary to Jerry Lee Lewis was a guitar player. Guy by the name of Hank Williams.
True, but many of country's conventions were well established when he got into it. When he got into rock it was new, especially white rock. I think he would have a more significant influence there.
Nah, guitar is the musical equivalent to football (soccer). It's cheap, easy to learn, you can take it with you, and you can play with your friends.
The trope of a kid turning up with their guitar couldn't happen with a piano.
You're right. I shouldn't have suggested that the piano would be more popular than guitar, only that you might have heard a lot more piano if Jerry Lee had been the face of white rock instead of Elvis.
People are going to play whatever they can get their hands on. I remember reading in a Muddy Waters biography about someone who started off writing songs using an old piano wire attached to a shack because that's all he had available.
Nothing wrong with suggesting a different idea :)
It would have been cool to watch 90's kids humping pianos to band practice with their friends though :D
So you're saying we could have had the keytar decades earlier?
We've had that movie. Now let's see the Elvis one.
Tbh the movie really didn't push the idea very far.
Yeah, I actually really like that movie, because it pulls all the right heart strings for me, but overall they didn't really explore all the impacts of the Beatles being gone on the actual music industry, besides a runaway joke about Oasis. It mostly focuses on how the protagonist makes a career out of his special knowledge.