Elvis Presley's Impact On Popular Music Culture
From the time Elvis recorded "That's All Right Mamma" for Sun Records in 1953, to his subsequent and astonishing rise to fame, he reinvented the concept of rock star and has made a bigger impact on popular music culture than any other act. That is saying a lot considering that the Beatles and Rolling Stones and others like Elton John have been huge superstars. But looking at Elvis's impact, as this paper does, one can clearly see that he influenced all of those acts. John Lennon said that "Before Elvis there was nothing…" and the Rolling Stones have indicated that they were hugely influenced by Elvis.
When Elvis Started Out -- Launching his Career as a Musical Rebel and Icon
An article in the Public Broadcasting Service (KCET) website ("Culture Shock / Music and Dance) traces Elvis's early beginnings in terms of how he became so influential in the popular music genre. He only sold about 20,000 records for his first recording, "That's All Right Mamma," but by 1956, his first record for RCA, "Heartbreak Hotel," went to the top of the charts. All of a sudden many television hosts wanted Elvis to appear, but because he was controversial (with those swinging hips and trusting pelvis moves) he was curtailed somewhat as to how he could perform live.
For example, when he appeared on the Milton Berle Show (June 5, 1956), he went into his full-on hips-swiveling mode, and following that appearance (during which he sang "Hound Dog"), "Television critics across the country slam[ed] the performance for its 'appalling lack of musicality' and for its 'vulgarity' and 'animalism'" (KCET). Even the Roman Catholic Church, that paragon of good values and good taste, ripped Elvis; the Catholic Church's weekly newsletter said, "Beware Elvis Presley" -- and that was only one of the institutions that ridiculed and attacked Elvis's performance. Still,...
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Conclusion Culture critic David Marsh once wrote that "Unless you understand that Elvis Presley was more than anything a spiritual leader of our generation, there's really no way to assess his importance, much less the meaning of his music."20 Indeed, Presley's impact on American culture was transformative. Through his music, which was heavily influenced by black artists, he exposed white America to a new group of performers. By testing social boundaries,
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