What if...

One topic which was brought up more than once in both the discussion as well as the presentation was the common occurrence of songs being covered. Many of the songs which were covered were given a more rock and roll style and often were more popular than the originals. One question that comes to mind is what if there were copyright laws present at the time and these songs were never changed? Would this have effected the popularity of rock and roll as a genre? Would it have caused the other genres to become more popular in its stead?