Cultural impact of Elvis Presley

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Presley with President Richard Nixon at the White House in December 1970

Since the beginning of his career, American singer

African-American blues, Christian gospel, and Southern country. In a list of the greatest English language singers, as compiled by Q magazine, Presley was ranked first,[2] and second in the list of greatest singers of the 20th century by BBC Radio.[3] Some people claim that Presley created a whole new style of music: "It wasn't black, wasn't white, wasn't pop or wasn't country—it was different." As most singers in his time created music geared for adults, he gave teens music to grow up with.

Elvis impersonators
Elvis Presley Avenue in Shreveport, Louisiana

Presley sang hard-driving rock and roll,

white American adults. Singers like Jerry Lee Lewis, the Everly Brothers, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Little Richard, Buddy Holly, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, and others immediately followed in his wake. John Lennon later commented: "Before Elvis, there was nothing."[4]

During the post-

bobby soxers had idolized Frank Sinatra, but the buyers of his records were mostly between the ages of eighteen and twenty-two. Presley triggered a lot of demand for his records by near-teens and early teens aged ten and up. Along with Presley's "ducktail" haircut, the demand for black slacks and loose, open-necked shirts resulted in new lines of clothing for teenage boys whereas a girl might get a pink portable 45 rpm record player for her bedroom. Meanwhile, American teenagers began buying newly available portable transistor radios[5] and listened to rock and roll on these, helping to propel that fledgling industry from an estimated 100,000 units sold in 1955 to 5,000,000 units by the end of 1958.[citation needed] Teens were asserting more independence and Presley became a national symbol of their parents' consternation.[citation needed
]

Presley's impact on the American youth consumer market was noted on the front page of The Wall Street Journal on the December 31, 1956, when business journalist Louis M. Kohlmeier wrote, "Elvis Presley today is a business", and reported on the singer's record and merchandise sales. Half a century later, historian Ian Brailsford (University of Auckland, New Zealand) commented, "The phenomenal success of Elvis Presley in 1956 convinced many doubters of the financial opportunities existing in the youth market."[6]

African American music influence

Debt to African American music, impact on Black artists

In spite of the facts that Nat King Cole had the #7 song in 1959, and the #1 song in 1961, and Chuck Berry had a major hit with "Maybellene" in 1955, in the United States in the 1950's legal segregation and discrimination against African Americans was common, especially in the Deep South. Presley would nevertheless publicly cite his debt to African American music, pointing to artists such as B. B. King, Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, Ivory Joe Hunter, and Fats Domino. The reporter who conducted Presley's first interview in New York City in 1956 noted that he named blues singers who "obviously meant a lot to him. [He] was very surprised to hear him talk about the black performers down there and about how he tried to carry on their music."[7] Later that year in Charlotte, North Carolina, Presley was quoted as saying: "The colored folks been singing it and playing it just like I'm doin' now, man, for more years than I know. They played it like that in their shanties and in their juke joints and nobody paid it no mind 'til I goosed it up. I got it from them. Down in Tupelo, Mississippi, I used to hear old Arthur Crudup bang his box the way I do now and I said if I ever got to a place I could feel all old Arthur felt, I'd be a music man like nobody ever saw."[8] Little Richard said of Presley: "He was an integrator. Elvis was a blessing. They wouldn't let black music through. He opened the door for black music."[9] B. B. King said he began to respect Presley after he did Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup material and that after he met him, he thought the singer really was something else and was someone whose music was growing all the time right up to his death.[10]

Up to the mid-1950s, black artists had sold minuscule amounts of their recorded music relative to the national market potential. Black songwriters had mostly limited horizons and could only eke out a living. But after Presley purchased the music of Otis Blackwell, an African-American singer-songwriter, and had his "Gladys Music" company hire talented black songwriter Claude Demetrius, the industry underwent a dramatic change. In the spring of 1957, Presley invited African American performer Ivory Joe Hunter to visit Graceland and the two spent the day together, singing "I Almost Lost My Mind" and other songs. Of Presley, Hunter commented, "He showed me every courtesy, and I think he's one of the greatest."[11]

Distrust of Elvis, transgression of societal boundaries

"Racists attacked rock and roll because of the mingling of black and white people it implied and achieved, and because of what they saw as black music's power to corrupt through vulgar and animalistic rhythms. ... The popularity of Elvis Presley was similarly founded on his transgressive position with respect to racial and sexual boundaries. ... White cover versions of hits by black musicians ... often outsold the originals; it seems that many Americans wanted black music without the black people in it,"[12] and Elvis had undoubtedly "derived his style from the Negro rhythm-and-blues performers of the late 1940s."[13]

Sam Phillips had anticipated problems promoting Presley's Sun singles. He recalled, "The white disc-jockeys wouldn't touch... Negroes' music and the Negro disc-jockeys didn't want anything to do with a record made by a white man.[14]"

Hillbilly singer Mississippi Slim, one of Presley's heroes, was one of the singer's fiercest critics.[15] Phillips felt Dewey Phillips—a white DJ who did play 'black' music—would promote the new material, but many of the hundreds of listeners who contacted the station when "That's All Right" was played were sure Presley must be black. The singer was interviewed several times on air by the DJ and was pointedly asked which school he had attended, to convince listeners that he was white.[16]

In 1957, Presley had to defend himself from claims of being a racist; he was alleged to have said, "The only thing Negro people can do for me is to buy my records and shine my shoes." The singer always denied saying, or ever wanting to say, such a racist remark.

Jet magazine, run by and for African-Americans, subsequently investigated the story and found no basis to the claim. However, the Jet journalist did find plenty of testimony that Presley judged people "regardless of race, color or creed".[17]

Certain elements in American society have dismissed Presley as no more than a racist Southerner who stole black music.[18] The "Elvis stole black music" theme is an enduring one with arguments for and against published in books.[19][20] A southern background combined with a performing style largely associated with African Americans had led to "bitter criticism by those who feel he stole a good thing", as Tan magazine surmised.[21] No wonder that Elvis became "a symbol of all that was oppressive to the black experience in the Western Hemisphere".[22] A black southerner in the late 1980s even captured that sentiment: "To talk to Presley about blacks was like talking to Adolf Hitler about the Jews."[23]

In his scholarly work Race, Rock, and Elvis,

American Historical Review wrote that the author "convincingly argues that the black-and-white character of the sound, as well as Presley's own persona, helped to relax the rigid color line and thereby fed the fires of the civil rights movement." The U.S. government report stated: "Presley has been accused of "stealing" black rhythm and blues, but such accusations indicate little knowledge of his many musical influences ... However much Elvis may have 'borrowed' from black blues performers (e.g., 'Big Boy' Crudup, 'Big Mama' Thornton), he borrowed no less from white country stars (e.g., Ernest Tubb, Bill Monroe) and white pop singers, and most of his borrowings came from the church; its gospel music was his primary musical influence and foundation."[citation needed
]

Whether or not it was justified, the fact remains that distrust of Presley was common amongst the general African-American population after the accusations of racism were made public.[23] Presley's singles had consistently charted on Billboard's R&B Singles Chart during the 1950s, but during the early 1960s, this became less common; his final chart appearance on Billboard's R&B chart was in 1963.[25] According to George Plasketes, several songs by other performers came out after the singer's death which are a part of a "demystification process as they portray Elvis as a racist."[26] In his book, Colored White: Transcending the Racial Past, David Roediger considers contemporary "w*ggers" in light of the tensions in racial impersonation embodied by Elvis Presley.[27] Chuck D and others have at one point or another publicly condemned Presley for "stealing" black music. However, in 2002, Chuck D, in an interview with the Associated Press in connection with the 25th Anniversary of Presley's death, explained how his feelings for Elvis's legacy were no longer those as originally suggested by the lyrics in "Fight The Power", a song which he had written 12 years earlier. When broadcast as a part of the NBC-produced documentary "Elvis Lives", Chuck D had the following to say about Presley: "Elvis was a brilliant artist. As a musicologist—and I consider myself one—there was always a great deal of respect for Elvis, especially during his Sun sessions. As a black person, we all knew that. (In fact), Eminem is the new Elvis because, number one, he had the respect for black music that Elvis had."

As one writer stated on the controversy, "Music is a universal language, like mathematics and money. It knows few borders. Jazz began in the return of black bands from graveyard interments in New Orleans. But the bands played white hymns out to the above-ground graves."[28]

Danger to American culture

By the spring of 1956, Presley was fast becoming a national phenomenon

National Guardsmen were on hand to prevent crowd trouble.[32]

Perceived moral and sexual impact

Presley was considered by some to be a threat to the moral well-being of young women, because "Elvis Presley didn't just represent a new type of music; he represented sexual liberation."

America.[35] Time magazine of June 11, 1956, mockingly referred to the singer as "dreamboat Groaner Elvis ('Presley." Even Frank Sinatra opined: "His kind of music is deplorable, a rancid smelling aphrodisiac. It fosters almost totally negative and destructive reactions in young people."[36]

Presley was even seen as a "definite danger to the security of the United States." His actions and motions were called "a strip-tease with clothes on" or "sexual self-gratification on stage". They were compared with "masturbation or riding a microphone". Some saw the singer as a sexual pervert, and psychologists feared that teenage girls and boys could easily be "aroused to sexual indulgence and perversion by certain types of motions and hysteria—the type that was exhibited at the Presley show."[37] In August 1956 in Jacksonville, Florida, a local juvenile court judge called Presley a "savage" and threatened to arrest him if he shook his body while performing at Jacksonville's Florida Theatre, justifying the restrictions by saying his music was undermining the youth of America. Throughout the performance, Presley stood still as ordered but poked fun at the judge by wiggling a finger. Similar attempts to stop his "sinful gyrations" continued for more than a year and included his often-noted January 6, 1957, appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show (during which he performed the spiritual number "Peace in the Valley"), when he was filmed only from the waist up.

In an interview with

AM broadcasts.[citation needed
]

Presley seemed bemused by all the criticism. On another of the many occasions he was challenged to justify the furor surrounding him, he said, "I don't see how they think [my act] can contribute to juvenile delinquency. If there's anything I've tried to do, I've tried to live a straight, clean life and not set any kind of a bad example. You cannot please everyone."

Elvis's musical capital never expanded enough for him to transcend the stigma of his background as a truck driver from the rural South... 'No matter how successful Elvis became... he remained fundamentally disreputable in the minds of many Americans... He was the sharecropper's son in the big house, and it always showed.'"[41][42]

Recognizability amongst the general public

Presley remains an immediately recognizable face even amongst groups not normally recognized as his fans. In 2008, a 1,800-year-old Roman bust described as bearing a "striking" resemblance to Elvis was displayed ahead of an intended auction.[43] A spokesman for the auctioneers said that fans could "be forgiven for thinking that their idol may well have lived a previous life in Rome."[43]

Presley made a large enough impact on society that traditions are carried on to remember him to this day. A candle lighting is held in Memphis, Tennessee, at his Graceland Estate each year on August 15 in his honor. Also, a "nostalgia concert" is held by singers that worked with Presley as a tribute to him. Presley was a big fan of Karate, and an Elvis Presley Memorial Karate Tournament was organized many years ago to let others enjoy something he used to love so much. The tournament has a large turnout, with around 500 competitors each year. Last, a Sock Hop is held, playing his songs and portraying some of his artwork.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Elvis Presley": a page at pbs.org with a single paragraph, attributed to palmpictures.com.
  2. ^ "The Greatest Voices Of All Time". March 7, 2007.
  3. ^ "Sinatra is voice of the century", BBC News, April 18, 2001, retrieved October 22, 2006.
  4. ^ "Before Elvis There Was Nothing". September 2, 2015. Archived from the original on October 6, 2017. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
  5. ^ Rich Gordon, "How Transistor Radios and Web (and Newspapers and Hi-Fi radio) are Alike Archived November 21, 2008, at the Wayback Machine", "Reprinted, with permission, from The Cole Papers, June 22, 2005."
  6. ^ Ian Brailsford, "History repeating itself: Were postwar American teenagers ripe for harvest? Archived March 16, 2007, at the Wayback Machine" (NB Microsoft Word format): transcript of a paper delivered at "Youth Marketing Reaches Forty Archived March 10, 2007, at the Wayback Machine", May 17, 2001.
  7. ISBN 1439508623
    .
  8. ^ Christopher John Farley (July 6, 2004). "Elvis Rocks. But He's Not the First", TIME, retrieved October 22, 2006
  9. ^ Jody Cook (2004). Graceland National Historic Landmark Nomination, United States Department of the Interior, p. 35.
  10. PBS
    television interview.
  11. ISBN 1439508623
    .
  12. ISBN 0521454298
    .
  13. ISBN 0226039595
    .
  14. ^ Carr and Farren, p. 16
  15. ISBN 1-57806-634-4
    .
  16. ^ Carr and Farren, pp. 11, 16
  17. ^ Natalie Davis (August 17, 2003). "The 'King' Has Left the Building Archived September 27, 2007, at the Wayback Machine". GratefulDread.net. Retrieved on October 14, 2007.
  18. ^ Bertrand
  19. ^ See: "Dispelling The Myths An analysis of American Attitudes and Prejudices", Todd Rheingold, Believe In The Dream Publications, USA, 1992, LOCC:93-090296, and on Elvis websites and popular music messageboards. Several arguments are presented on the Elvis Information Network website in its Spotlight On The King section.
  20. ^ Welcome to the Elvis Information Network. elvisinfonet.com
  21. ^ Bertrand, p. 222.
  22. ^ Bertrand, p. 27.
  23. ^ a b Bertrand, p. 200. The author adds, "One journalist wrote upon the singer's death that African Americans refused to participate in the numerous eulogies dedicated to him."
  24. ^ Race, Rock, and Elvis. University of Illinois.
  25. ISBN 978-0-8230-8283-4
    .
  26. ISBN 1560249102
    .
  27. ISBN 0520233417
    .
  28. ^ Gary North. No Rhythm, No Blues: Must White Guys Always Finish Last? lewrockwell.com
  29. ^ Culture Shock: Flashpoints: Music and Dance: Elvis Presley. pbs.org
  30. ISBN 0-02-864599-5
    .
  31. ^ a b Carr and Farren, p. 12
  32. ^ "Elvis Rock 'n' Roll History Archived December 15, 2007, at the Wayback Machine". showbuzz.CBSnews.com (August 10, 2007). Retrieved October 14, 2007.
  33. ISBN 0-451-19094-7
    .
  34. ISBN 0-87855-586-2
    .
  35. PBS
    . Retrieved on October 14, 2007.
  36. ^ Simran Khurana. "Quotes About Elvis Presley Archived March 3, 2016, at the Wayback Machine". about.com. Retrieved on October 14, 2007.
  37. ISBN 0-930751-03-5
    .
  38. ^ "Stephen Foster | American Experience | PBS". www.pbs.org.
  39. ^ a b Bertrand, p. 223.
  40. ISBN 0-399-12984-7
    .
  41. ^ Pratt, pp.43, 45
  42. ISBN 0-415-11002-5
    .
  43. ^ a b Clout, Laura (July 23, 2008). "Elvis lives: in 2,000-year-old carving". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved March 8, 2014.
  44. ^ "Crooner 'with a calling' sings Elvis ... in Latin". sawfnews.com. Archived from the original on April 23, 2007.
  45. Independent Online (South Africa)
    . August 15, 2007.

Bibliography

External links
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