This isn’t a “go back in time and assassinate” someone question. It’s just their musical career never takes off and thus any music they ever would have made is no longer in this timeline.
Ted Nugent. He is just a complete scumbag and without his shitty music career he never would have impacted so many people with his gross bullshit. The world would be better off if his music never existed.
That would likely have the benefit of saving us from Kid Rock too.
I was about to give the example of Ted Nugent in the body of the post because he’s just such a douche. I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought the same.
Ted Nugent deserves to have more than just his career erased. Fucking admitted pedophile piece of shit.
Mariah Carey. I work retail. If you know, you know.
I worked retail for exactly one Christmas. The day I worked the toy department they had one album on repeat for eight hours. I hated Christmas music for years, and now it just annoys me.
I won’t say his name but I stopped someone’s musical career once. He was an up and coming young guitarist, getting performing gigs here and there, and teaching guitar students to help pay his bills while waiting for a break. I took some lessons from him and as part of general chatting it came out that I worked with computers. He thought that was interesting and asked good questions, so I brought him some programming books. He became a full time programmer a couple months later and a very good one too. I’m glad it worked out for him, but I always wonder what we lost.
My coach used to tell the story of a really promising track and field athlete who might have had a serious shot on the world scene, but quit to play in his band called The Barenaked Ladies. I never fact checked that, so I have no idea if it was true or not. But it stuck with me because it made me think of all the people who might have been incredible in one field or another who just never gave it a shot.
“Ike At The Mike” by Howard Waldrop. Award winning short story. An elderly Dwight Eisenhower is invited to the White House. Ike famously gave up his West Point cadetship to become a jazz musician. Among the attendees honoring him is the young Elvis A. Presley, Senator from Mississippi.
Which books? Also, how long ago was this?
This was decades ago. I don’t remember the specific books but they were about programming in C. By now that is considered a neckbeard language. The first thing the guy did, with like zero experience, was write a video compression program in C.
Simon Cowell
The cunt worked out how to make millions from gouging money from kids with cheaply produced pop, and caused a massive collapse in the quality of the British music scene, from which it’s never really recovered
It was the only good thing left Simon 🤨
Yoko Ono
Michael Jackson. Having his career fail during the childhood “Jackson 5” phase. Better for him and a lotta other people.
Last i remember he would play with kids but didn’t sexually abuse them. Was there any more infor came out?
He asked them to show their butt holes and masturbated in front of them, so not as severe as rape but definitely sexual abuse (allegedly).
What swung it for me is when Louis Theroux said that anyone claiming he’s not a pedophile is in denial. If you’re willing to look the other way because “he made great music though”, then shame on you.
He asked them to show their butt holes and masturbated in front of them
Yeah, gonna need a source on that…
A documentary called “Leaving Neverland”.
It’s available to watch on Netflix and Amazon Prime. I watched this honestly with a mind that wasn’t just open, but sceptical with a view that some “hangers on” were just after a quick payday and I ended up feeling pretty sick.
Oh boy, yeah, a lot more came out about it. There’s actually been a lot over the years, but a few years ago a pretty serious documentary came out about it. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaving_Neverland
Chris Brown because fuck that guy.
Outside the box: Robert Elliot, a charter pilot who flew and killed Jim Croce by crashing into a tree on takeoff. Pilot error was found to be the cause as the overweight 57 year old pilot was unable to drive to the airport so ran for 3 miles, from his motel to the hangar, to be on time for the flight. The run exacerbated his coronary artery disease, causing him to tunnel vision and not see the tree.
Wasn’t sure if I should believe you or not, so I looked it up
…I’m still not sure if I can believe this
Similar story, when I was 12 I was late for the school bus and ran about 2 blocks with a full backpack and a snare drum. Ended up puking in the bus aisle about halfway through the hour long ride. Basically the same thing.
I’d do the inverse of this and see what might have happened if Charles Manson had had a successful music career. I heard an album of his songs and they were actually pretty good, kind of a mix of The Beach Boys and The Doors. Maybe if he’d sold some more songs then he wouldn’t have gone into the whole murder cult thing.
But then again maybe it would have positioned him to be way worse and we’re actually living in the universe where somebody stopped Manson from achieving true wealth and power and like leading a nationwide death cult or something.
Black Eyed Peas, I feel like that band was forced on me for like a decade.
Drake.
Wanker.
Amy Winehouse. If she stayed a blues singer in London she might not have had so many drug issues made worse by fame.
Courtney Love already did this
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?
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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.
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
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The singer of 30 Seconds to Mars
