The Impact of Elvis Presley on American Culture

Music has the inherent ability to soothe the mind of an individual. This essay seeks to talk about the impact of a legendary personality called Elvis Presley on the American culture and how his music has contributed to the society at large.

The Significance of Elvis Presley's Music in Breaking Down Social Barriers

The figure of Elvis Presley considered to be a revolutionizing figure who changed the face of the pop culture of the United States. His music had the ability to impact the existing societal structure to a significant level. During those times, in the mid-twentieth century, there was widespread prevalence of racial discriminations. Presley’s music tried to break such obstacles and unite the people under the banner of music and entertainment.

An important criticism which can be labelled against this source is the heightened appreciation paid to music to break the social evil of racial discrimination. Presley was undoubtedly trying to improve the society, however, people should have the conscience to distinguish the undesirable without resorting to music.

This source discusses the impact of the death of Elvis Presley on the people of the United States and even that of Europe. Presley was considered to be a missionary and there was a general wave of depression in the continent when he passed away. During his lifetime, he had impacted the lives of a lot of people, providing guidance and inspiration to the teenage people. After his death, many radio and television program often played his songs as a sign of respect and remembrance.

This source vividly captured the impact that Elvis Presley had on the common people. It portrayed the sentiments of the people of the Western world when he passed away. This source has commendably tried to analyze what Presley and his music meant to the society.

Ted Harrison has tried to focus on the cult developed by Elvis Presley. During his lifetime, he was revered by many to be the “King of Rock and Roll’ or was simply referred as ‘The King’. Ted Harrison portrays the extent of influence of this inspiring personality on the public at large. Many people tried to use his legend and impact by forming a cult which will go on to have an immense impact on the contemporary generation.

The article written by Ted Harrison shows the significance of the musician on the lives of the common people. He had left such an important mark on the world that even after his death, a cult has formed surrounding him, where everybody is trying to follow his ideals and principles.

This article looks into the lives and contributions of well-known figures in the music world, that of Elvis Presley, John Lennon and Kurt Cobain. Focusing on the wok of Elis Presley, it is said that he has had a strong influence on the young generation of the mid twentieth century. The music composed by Elvis Presley enjoys a cultural heritage in the modern contemporary world. People still listen to his music ardently and implement his ideas in their daily lives such as his words of wisdom and his pleas for tolerance towards others.

The Cultural Heritage of Elvis Presley's Music in Contemporary Society

This article has been fluently written, underlying the different values left behind by the famous musicians. Their life works and achievements and struggles, all have been mentioned in great detail. The article also discusses about the various challenges posed by the social structure to the concerned artists, such as economic struggles, recognition, and how they overcame them with their perseverance and talent.

This book talks about the first of its kind International Conference, arranged in the memory of Elvis Presley, during 1995. The main objective of arranging such an International Conference was to make the people of various places aware about the ideology followed by Presley in the course of his life. Such an ideology allowed him to compose his music which were filled with love, compassion and care for his fellow human beings. People lovingly called him ‘The King’ and he was responsible for giving a new face to the pop culture followed in the United States.

The advantage of this book is that it focuses on the appreciation of Elvis Presley by the means of organizing an International Conference for this purpose. This book also portrays the various civil issues mentioned by Presley through his music compositions.

The book clearly reveals the impact that a music can have on the society, in fact, on a country as a whole. This book reviews the performance of the Elvis Show in Parkes, a small desolate town in Australia. The show has gained so much of liking and appreciation that it has found mention even in the Guinness Book of Records. Earlier, this town was abandoned, but after the start of the Parkes Elvis Show, people flock here to listen to Presley’s songs.

The advantage of this book is that is tries to show very effectively, the impact of a musical arrangement on the lives of people. People are so much influenced by the music of Presley that his songs receive the highest appreciation and reverence even in a place where Presley himself has never visited.

This book focuses on the religious aspect of the music composed by Elvis Presley. There is a concern that many people follow Presley because of the compositions of gospel album. He even won several Grammy Awards, the highest award for musical appreciation, for his gospel albums. The author does argue that the people who follow Presley ardently, have started to sanctify him as a God. Worthy of worship and reverence.

The Reverence for Elvis Presley as a Religious Icon

A limitation of this source is that it tries to take an in-depth look into the fans of Presley. Presley’s music talks about the Bible and has a tendency to talk against any form of discrimination. This does not mean that the position of a God can be given to an individual.

This article analyzes the significant position given to the musicians. According to the author, this practice has been in existence since the times of the Romantic Period when the society considered the musicians to be at par with the celebrities. They music sung by them had the charm which appealed to the common folk and also spread messages of love and tolerance. In the modern contemporary world, this practice of revering great musicians is followed with affection and care.

The advantage of this article is that is analyzes in a very comprehensive manner the importance paid to the musicians. It also discusses about the various factors which promote such culture among the people.

Aylward, Caroline. "The Impact of Image: The Iconographic Celebrity of the Musician." 2016 NCUR (2016).

Bennett, Andy, and Susanne Janssen. "Popular music, cultural memory, and heritage." (2016): 1-7.

Chadwick, Vernon. In search of Elvis: music, race, art, religion. Routledge, 2018.

Deboick, Sophia L. "The death and resurrection of Elvis Presley, by Ted Harrison." (2017): 359-361.

Duffett, Mark. "Elvis’ Gospel music: Between the secular and the spiritual?." Religions 6.1 (2015): 182-203.

King, Christine. "11 The Death of a King: Elvis Presley (1935–1977)." The Changing Face of Death: Historical Accounts of Death and Disposal (2016): 164.

Murray, Warwick. "Outback Elvis: the story of a festival, its fans, and a town called Parkes." (2018): 1-3.

Wallace, Marcie. "Elvis Presley: A Revolutionist." Accessed July 20 (2017).

It would be an understatement to say that Elvis Presley was just a singer who had a huge fan following. His songs were rather an emotion, passion, style statement and a sensation which rocked the 1950s, and is cherished today as one of the classics. Presley did not just infuse melody into his innumerable compositions and dedicated them to the huge crowd that adored him. Rather, it was a message which spoke so empathetically of the perils that divided people from each other, and pitted one against the other.

Through his songs he wanted to call upon the people to do away with them and bring about a culture in society which embraced people belonging to all sections, irrespective of their differences. His musical compositions were a blue print of a utopian society where everyone was equal and there prevailed harmony and humanity. Blessed with a golden voice, he was equally endowed with charming looks garnished with the cutting edge fashion which he carried with ace and comfort. He had carved out a new template for the people of his age to follow, thereby redefining and refurbishing the concept of looking attractive and fashionable. In this particular essay forming the second part of the assignment, the thesis statement shall be dealing with the impact Elvis Presley had generated in the society and the culture.

Celebration of Elvis Presley's Legacy in Pop Culture

Elvis Presley cannot be called as the one to invent the rock n roll style music, but he had definitely devoted a lot to redefine and customize the form of art by elevating it to the position of an independent genre in music altogether. In this section the aspect of the impact he had generated in the field of popular culture shall be discussed extensively. Elvis Presley has been accoladed as the individual to have raised rock n roll as the ultimate definition and language of pop music internationally. From music, to dance moves, and to costume, everything reeked of vibrancy and expressiveness of exuberance and glamour.

Elvis Presley had a huge fan following since he, unlike most other artists of his time appealed to the young generation, while his contemporaries only composed to suit the sensibilities of the adult generation. The compositions of Elvis Presley was very difficult to strictly compartmentalize as belonging to some genre. It was difficult to say if his compositions were either pop or it was country style folk music. It seemed lie it was neither of the two styles mentioned, but the striking fact was that it had characteristic features of both the genres, which made his compositions quite different and innovative, hence way more attractive than most others of his time. Estimates ascertain the fact that Elvis Presley had buyers of his records within the range of eighteen to eighty two. However, the fans in the age just slightly ahead of teenage and in their early teens formed the lion’s share of his fans. This speaks volumes about the impact he had generated in the field of music and pop culture. His compositions were quite versatile as it had a wide variety of styles ranging from hard rock to soft music which had the capacity to fulfill the criteria of being suitable for different occasions.

Elvis Presley had provided a base for future artists aspiring to reach up to the heights of stardom and fame. Singers like Turner, Domino and Harris of African American origin had risen to popularity because of the patronage they had received from him. That was not just a boom in the field of music, but was also a boost to the economy, and the youth of the country propelled the sensational economic boom. Much of it was possible because of the culture of consumerism and the increase in the purchasing power of the youth that Elvis Presley emerged as a singer who was heavily sold across the country, as well as overseas. He had taken the American market by storm.

The Impact of Elvis Presley's Death on the Western World

During the period when his career was at its buxom prime, it was next to impossible for the artists of African origin to reach up to stardom and fame given the amount of discrimination and stigmatization that they faced in the society which was highly prejudiced towards the people of Negro origin. The form of music which was played by the people of black origin were considered as too unsophisticated and animal like which lacked finesse and the feature of being civilized, as opposed to the musical compositions of the white artists. Elvis Presley had on the other hand been a daring individual to break with the traditions and openly declare the fact that his style of music was not just inspired but heavily influenced by the rhythmic patterns of the folk music of the Africans. It was because of his grace that African artists like Otis Blackwell and Claude Demetrius could make big in life economically. Elvis Presley had purchased their talent, which was something unbelieveable at that point of time.

Though he had faced backlash but that did not however enshroud the fame to which he was destined. Enormous amounts of riots took place during the occasion of the concerts arranged by him because his musical compositions was characterized by an amalgamation of both White American and African American musical elements. Those times were such when tensions and animosities could escalate to such a height that black disc jockeys refrained from playing anything composed by a white person, and the white disc jockeys on the other hand considered even touching a disc containing a composition of a black artist a blasphemy. Naturally, it can be expected that hostility between the communities shall break out when the both shall come together in close contact with each other. However, the striking fact was that the younger generations who listened to the compositions of Elvis Presley were the ones to flock to his concerts with much more enthusiasm than anyone else as their intellectual response to his songs were quite favourable and that showed that his message of bridging the gap between the disparate communities were showing budding signs of fulfillment and success.

These were as far as his musical compositions were concerned. Now the discussion shall be focusing upon his dance moves and his dressing sense. Elvis Presley’s dance moves were equally inspired by African style, as his melodies were. Even that caused quite a lot of social uproar given the fact that he was supposedly being a heretic and his actions were polluting the novelty and the charm of American culture. In the predominantly white society of America, shaking of the legs, making convulsive and circular motions with the butts was considered as very unappealing and rather obscene. It was considered as the actions meant only for the Africans.

The Cult of Elvis Presley and Its Influence on Popular Culture

Elvis Presley had brought about a revolutionary change in the field of performance art by dancing the way Africans did, even at the face of wide spread adversity and hostile public opinion. His moves were as per the comments of Hank Ballard, something so extraordinary that the way he shook his belly and his legs was bound to make one feel that even the black men did not shake so much. Elvis Presley had to face quite a lot of criticism, his music was considered in common parlance as the nigger music very colloquially, and the religious people, especially the Pentecostals held his music to be the music of the devil. Once a gang of racial supremacists had thrown a fire bomb at his car to prevent him from reaching at the scheduled concert. Despite that it was very difficult to hold back the rebellious teenagers from attending his concerts who looked for more freedom and wanted to break away from the psychic prison of the ideas and values which did not seem to fit with their mentality, and their intellect, and the musical compositions of Elvis Presley were a respite for them. The young ones of the 1950s used to secretly travel places to attend the concerts of Elvis Presley. Radio stations were set up which exclusively played his songs which were called as rock n roll stations. Even in the field of fashion he had brought about revolution, and it would not be unjustified to call him as one of the champions of metrosexuality. Before him it was unthinkable for a heterosexual man to wear pink shirts and jewelleries. His classic style of carving out the sideburns and his hairstyle became a big fashion statement for the people of his generation.

Hence in the concluding section it can said that he had immense amount of impact in society, culture and fashion, which revolutionized the way people conceived life to be, and he can serve as the perfect example of being successful by being unconventional. He had not only voiced of the racial discrimination but had also tried to harmonize the two antagonistic communities of the blacks and the whites, and had also tried to bring about a change in the way society viewed gender, and had proven that by being unconventional, he could still be masculine.