Elvis!
by admin - September 27th, 2013
The first time I watched Lilo and Stitch I didn’t realize how big of a role Elvis Presley played. Lilo was trying to teach her alien, pet Stitch how to behave like Elvis Presley, referring to him as a “model citizen.” He could dance, sing, play guitar, and was a teenage heartthrob. But that wasn’t it for Elvis. He had an incredible work ethic and was easy to work with. He was rebellious, but respectful and polite. He acquired incredible fame and changed the style of music. Elvis Presley was unlike other rock stars that followed him.
Elvis Presley’s talent was hard not to recognize. He was something no one had ever seen before; a white boy with the sound and rhythm of a black man. His voice was unique and attracted the attention of recording studios, television shows, and media. In January of 1956, Presley recorded, “Heartbreak Hotel,” which illustrated his blend of styles, like blues and gospel. Elvis Presley did not have one sound. He had the ability to mix blues, country, and jazz, and he truly encompassed the essence of rock and roll. Presley was known for covering songs made by others artists and making them his own, turning the song into a hit. He covered Carl Perkin’s, “Blue Suede Shoes,” and Big Mama Thorton’s, “Hound Dog,” making them into songs with such success that they are remembered over six decades. Presley’s rendition of “Hound Dog,” sold over seven million copies and was the biggest hit of the Fifties. Today, many artists have very similar sounds and there are not many bands or vocalists creating new styles. There aren’t many musicians that can claim to have created a rebellion or to have made a new music genre.
Presley’s career took off after many television appearances and recording numerous hit singles in 1956. He first appeared on Stage Show, and then he spent time recording. He recorded, “Shake, Rattle, and Roll,” “Tutti Frutti,” “Lawdy Miss Clawdy,” and “Blue Suede Shoes,” which was his second million seller. He made two appearances on The Milton Berle Show, in April and June, but by that time his music had spread and he was famous. Later on in his career Elvis made an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, the most popular television show in the Fifties. Ed Sullivan originally did not want Presley on his show because he was different and the adult audience was not a fan of him, but he caved when his competition hosted Elvis on their shows. I can imagine performing on The Ed Sullivan Show must have been as honorable as being on The Ellen Show or Saturday Night Live today.
Elvis Presley’s television appearances “drew battle lines in the Elvis culture war” (Dunar 273). Elvis was a hero among the teenage community, and he was new and exciting. But to parents of this time period, Elvis was dangerous and offensive. Elvis swiveled his hips, making teenage girls swoon and infuriating their parents. Elvis’ dance moves were suggestive and explicitly sexual. It was new and rebellious, and his dancing turned man into a sex object, something that had not been seen before. New dance moves normally cause such reactions. Whether it’s Elvis’ hip swivel or Michael Jackson’s moonwalk, teenagers idolize these artists and their styles, and their parents despise them. Today, rap and hip-hop are popular styles of music that teenagers listen to, and the dance moves that come along with these styles, such as “twerking,” or “grinding,” would repulse our parents. Musicians like Miley Cyrus terrify our parents, like Elvis scared parents in the Fifties, because their dance moves teach that our bodies are objects of sex.
Despite Elvis’ bad reputation amongst parents, he was an idol to the younger people of the Fifties, and even today Elvis is praised and idolized. Elvis’ talents have granted him fame lasting for generations. There aren’t many musicians as unique as Elvis was, and there may never be. He had qualities that no other single artist since has possessed, and he has earned his title as the “King of Rock and Roll.”
-Haley W.
When you started with the Lilo and Stitch reference I could completely see the exact scene you were talking about. When I think about Elvis I also imagine a scene in a movie. I always think about the scene in Forest Gump where Elvis stays at Forest’s house and observes Forest’s dancing with his braces. He then later passes televisions in a window when walking with his Mother and she pulls him away because of how inappropriate the dancing is. Oh the irony because Forest was actually the influence on his dancing (at least in the movie). That was when I really saw how controversial Elvis’ dance moves were. I just found it interesting that when you think of Elvis you also relate it to a movie! 🙂
Good post, it’s kind of interesting to see the similarities between the culture back then and today like the dance moves of the artists of today produced the same effects that today’s artists can cause.
I like how you talked about Elvis almost in comparison to today by mentioning Ellen and Lilo and Stitch. It made me try to think of other comparisons of him and his legend to today, but I couldn’t. Like you said, there are really no artists who challenge music or create a new style these days, at least not in the sense Elvis did.
My grandmother is still just as obsessed with him today as she was when Elvis was in his prime, which just goes to show just how popular influential he was for his time. In the words of grandma, “nobody tops my boyfriend Elvis…nobody.”
I love your comparison between Elvis and other artists. It seems like parents have always disagreed with children when it comes to music.
When we first started talking about Elvis, I also pictured Lilo from Lilo and Stitch laying in her bedroom listening to Hound Dog. This class, and your post, have really shown me what an influential artist he was. I liked that you related him to Miley Cyrus today. No matter what generation, parents will always say the music their children listen to is worse than the music they used to listen to.
The introduction of Haley’s post made me think about how often Elvis is mentioned throughout pop culture. Elvis is the epitome of musical change, because his performances were able to change the perception of entertainers. “Elvis’ dance moves were suggestive and explicitly sexual”– maybe this is why so many people gravitated towards it. When something is different or breaks boundaries people have a tendency to give undivided attention towards it. Although Miley’s VMA performance was considered vulgar and far from classy, that is the reason why people are still talking about it. I think that Elvis’s legacy carries the idea that people are naturally afraid of different things and yet simultaneously intrigued by them. Ironically, Elvis’s bad reputation is what made him an iconic figure.
If Elvis were still alive today, I wonder what his impact on the world would be ? I think that his presence would have influenced both society and music in different ways. It would have been interesting to see how Elvis’ music developed with the changes in technology.
When we first started talking about Elvis, I instantly thought of the Lilo and Stitch movie and how Stitch was taught to act like Elvis, which is ironic as his moves were not seen as family friendly during the 1950’s. Elvis’s moves are now being replicated and taught in a Disney movie, however we do not think that this is inappropriate, as more rebellious performers have come about since then. The disapproving moves of Miley Cyrus may be laughed about in the future and claimed as being “not that inappropriate”. It is scary to think that our society may accept this vulgarity at some point in the future, as we have eventually accepted Elvis’s “inappropriate” moves.
I love this post and I agree that music and especially Elvis had a big impact on the 1950’s. As Haley said, Elvis was a bit of a controversial figure with his provocative hip movements. Elvis brought a new genre of music to the world and changed views on dancing. Many parents didn’t like Elvis because his music was somewhat of a black mans tune and his dancing was a bit more risque than the ‘norm’. Elvis started a rend of new music. Look where we are now with our what would then be called ‘devil music’ and our strange dancing like twerking and grinding. Elvis started the movement but still stayed more conservative than we are today.
You brining up all the Elvis talk in Lilo and Stitch really made me think back to my childhood and even now, how people are still affected by not only his music but his being. He was such a breakthrough when it came to stereotypical music and I feel like it broke down many societal walls that were still up then such as racial segregation. Being a white man singing music that sounded like “black music” must have shocked so many people back then. Could it have possibly had an influence on the teenagers of the 50’s, thus pushing society into a less segregated world?