I heard a great discussion today on NPR about "counterfactual" history. Several historians have written essays about this for two books, "What If" dealing with military history and "What If, 2" dealing with world history in general.

Each took a pivotal event in history and examined what if it went another way. It was quite interesting and valuable not only for entertainment, but also, as a couple of them pointed out, to interest young people in history and to prove that regular human beings, we the people, can effect great changes.

Anyway, I thought it might be fun if we tried it with music. It's wide open. Only rule they had was it has to be plausible. So, I guess "What if Robert Johnson hadn't gone down to the crossroads" wouldn't qualify, but maybe a "What if Lomax hadn't sought out and recorded the way he did?" What would have happened then?

It doesn't have to stick to any one era, nor any one genre of music. Could just as easily ask "What if Beethoven had not gone deaf? Would he have still composed the same things?"

You get the idea? Let's see where we can go with this, okay?

Thanks,

kat