Elvis

2 Pages 508 Words

Elvis’s Influences

Elvis has meant many things to many people all over the world. He was gone from Rock’n’Roll to Hollywood Heartthrob, back to Las Vegas megastar. But if you look carefully Elvis was nothing than a mere boy raised in the south that was taught to love his mama and Jesus. These are the basic things that made him a great rock and roll legend. Elvis changed the face of rock and roll forever with his dance moves, sexuality, style of clothes, long hair, and different style of music that was no accepted by all Americans. Also his used of black music and black style made a lasting impression in history (Pratt 377).
Elvis introduced many different styles to the music world during the 1950s. The black population influenced many of these. Elvis did t sound fully white, were fore many radio stations we cautious of playing his music due to the “black-white rigidities of a segregated society” (Pratt 376). He used different types of black music to make his own. He was “the only artist to have the same record at number one on the pop, country, and rhythm and blues charts” (Schmidt 339). Many black Southerners resented this and all the success that he gained by it because he was using music that had originated by black but was unable to be sold on the market due to the “segregated commercial world” (Pratt 377). Although some black musicians resent him, some pay tribute to him like B. B. King and James Brown. They believe that through his use of black music it opened up many opportunities for them (Rosenbaum 388). Fusing black music with white country music to make a new kind of music was the thought be his “best known aspect of his career and his greatest accomplishment” according to Pratt (337).
From his gyrating hips to his shaking body, Elvis’s must stunning quality was his sexuality. He was banned form performing and was shunned by mothers and fathers but he was adored by all his young fans that...