The cultural impact of Elvis Presley was a seismic and defining phenomenon of the 20th century. As a musician and entertainer, Presley's influence extended far beyond music, shaping popular culture in the realms of fashion, youth identity, sexuality, and media. The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll describes Presley as "an American music giant of the 20th century who single-handedly changed the course of music and culture in the mid-1950s"."Elvis Presley": a page at pbs.org with a single paragraph, attributed to palmpictures.com. His synthesis of diverse musical genres (particularly African-American blues, Christian gospel, and Southern country) combined with an uninhibited performance style, challenged the social and racial barriers of his time and galvanized a new youth-oriented consumer culture. In a list of the greatest English language singers, as compiled by Q magazine, Presley was ranked first, and second in the list of greatest singers of the 20th century by BBC Radio."Sinatra is voice of the century", BBC News, April 18, 2001, retrieved October 22, 2006.
Presley sang hard-driving rock and roll, rockabilly dance songs, and ballads, laying a commercial foundation upon which other rock musicians would build their careers. African-American performers such as Big Joe Turner, Wynonie Harris and Fats Domino came to national prominence after Presley's acceptance among mass audiences of 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 commented the day after the Beatles visited the singer at his home: "The only person that we wanted to meet in the United States of America was Elvis Presley. You can't imagine what a thrill that was last night. Nothing really affected me until I heard Elvis. If there hadn't been an Elvis, there wouldn't have been the Beatles."
Presley’s image evolved from the rebellious rocker of the 1950s to the Las Vegas showman of the 1970s, making him a highly recognizable figure in modern history. His style directly influenced the youth. 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.
Presley's impact on the American youth consumer market was noted on the front page of The Wall Street Journal for 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, University of Auckland historian Ian Brailsford commented, "The phenomenal success of Elvis Presley in 1956 convinced many doubters of the financial opportunities existing in the youth market."Ian Brailsford, "History repeating itself: Were postwar American teenagers ripe for harvest? " (NB Microsoft Word format): transcript of a paper delivered at "Youth Marketing Reaches Forty ", May 17, 2001.
African American music influence Debt to African American music, impact on black artists
Despite that Nat King Cole had the #7 song in 1959, and the #1 song in 1961, and that Chuck Berry had a major hit with "Maybellene" in 1955, the 1950s United States was fraught with legal segregation and discrimination against African Americans, 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."Peter Guralnick (2008) Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley, Paw Prints, p. 248, . 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."Christopher John Farley (July 6, 2004). "Elvis Rocks. But He's Not the First", TIME, retrieved October 22, 2006 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."Jody Cook (2004). Graceland National Historic Landmark Nomination, United States Department of the Interior, p. 35. 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.Oral Histories. PBS television interview.
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."Peter Guralnick (2008) Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley, Paw Prints, p. 426, .
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,"Robert Walser (1998) "The rock and roll era", in The Cambridge History of American Music, Cambridge University Press, p. 358, . and Elvis had undoubtedly "derived his style from the Negro rhythm-and-blues performers of the late 1940s."Martha Bayles (ed.) (1996) Hole in Our Soul: The Loss of Beauty and Meaning in American Popular Music, University of Chicago Press, p. 22, .
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.Carr and Farren, p. 16" Phillips felt that 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.Carr and Farren, pp. 11, 16
Hillbilly singer Mississippi Slim, one of Presley's heroes, was one of the singer's fiercest critics.
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 to conclude that to Elvis, "people are people regardless of race, color or creed".Natalie Davis (August 17, 2003). "The 'King' Has Left the Building ". GratefulDread.net. Retrieved on October 14, 2007.
Certain elements in American society have dismissed Presley as no more than a racist Southerner who stole black music.Bertrand The "Elvis stole black music" theme is an enduring one with arguments for and against published in books.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.Welcome to the Elvis Information Network. elvisinfonet.com 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.Bertrand, p. 222. By 2000, some would consider Elvis "a symbol of all that was oppressive to the black experience in the Western Hemisphere".Bertrand, p. 27.
In his scholarly work Race, Rock, and Elvis,Race, Rock, and Elvis. University of Illinois. Tennessee State University professor Michael T. Bertrand examined the relationship between popular culture and social change in America and these allegations against Presley. Professor Bertrand postulated that Presley's rock and roll music brought an unprecedented access to African American culture that challenged the 1950s segregated generation to reassess ingrained segregationist stereotypes. The 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."
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.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." 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. According to George Plasketes, several songs by other performers came out after the singer's death, which are part of a "demystification process as they portray Elvis as a racist."George Plasketes (1997) Images of Elvis Presley in American Culture, 1977–1997: The Mystery Terrain, Haworth Press, p. 53, . In his book, Colored White: Transcending the Racial Past, David Roediger considers contemporary "wiggers" in light of the tensions in racial impersonation embodied by Elvis Presley.David Roediger (2003) Colored White: Transcending the Racial Past, University of California Press, p. 26, . 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."