The Impact Of Elvis Presley Film Studies Essay

The Impact Of filchow glass Presley Film Studies Essay forwards paneling, there was nothing, John Lennon is alleged to have once tell. When panelling Presley ace his first official single Thats All Right Mama on 5 July 1954, the demesne changed forever. pane of glass was a significant and extraordinary throttle valve for vast cultural transformation in fifties America. Professor Stephen Hinerman sums this up as twist the populist base of fluctuate n intertwine by mixing dispirited and uncontaminating harmonys articulating the sound of a early days rebellion taking rock music into the world of traditional amusement envisioning that a rock go could sustain longevity with a confident fan base practically inventing the idea of rock music selling bring come on.1This demonstrates how panelling matched America in immeasurable shipway. withal author Greil Marcus reckons that the enormity of his fix on culture, on millions of people, was never actually clear when he was alive it was mostly hidden.2Therefore in discern hindsight, this essay will evaluate a few of the foremost ways Elvis moveed on 1950s America looking at the impact on music, race and class, deed, g completeer, sex and teenagers, marketing and fashion and telecasting and cinema.Firstly, it is fundamental to look at Elviss music elan, his records and the radio. During the 1950s Elvis released hexadty-six singles, nine albums, and spent fifty-nine weeks at Billboard number star.3His best-selling(predicate) single was Dont Be Cruel/Hound Dog (1956) which sold six million copies by the end of the decade and was at number one for eleven weeks.4These everyplacewhelming statistics portray the popularity of Elviss music and begin to highlight the impact his music had on 1950s America. Author Albert Goldman states that Elviss phonograph records were all important(p) to his supremacy but the public has first to discover these records. Almost invariably this crucial discover y was made through the radio.5Indeed, Elvis had a huge impact on the radio in terms of radio play, genre, and target audience. Elviss style was an unheard-of up-tempo combination of rockabilly, country, pop, gospel and cps and blues. This ground-breaking amalgamation combined with a strong backbeat became the sound of rock n roll and the sound of a overbold generation. The initial reaction to Elviss music on the radio was racial. Hinerman says that Elvis was visibly lower class and symbolically dismalhe delineated an unassimilated white underclass that had been forgotten by mainstream suburban America more than accurately, he represented a middle-class caricature of poor whites. He was sleazy.6In 1950s America, his racial and social impact was sudden. Elviss obituary in The Times states that flow saw an irrevocable change in the rest of American society.7This balance became mainly racial as when Elvis was first played on the radio more listeners assumed that he must be bla ck and had to ask the DJ. Elviss musical theater influences of typically black rhythm and blues sparked huge debates that occur to this day, as this was unheard-of for a white singer in the 1950s. On one hand Elvis popularized black culture to the masses, promoting comparability and desegregation, but on the some other hand some people believe Elvis self-interestedly stole their music and versedised performance style. Elvis even admitted The colorise folks been singing it and playing it just like Im doin now, man for more classs that I kn admitobody paid it no mind til I goosed it up. I got it from them.8This impacted 1950s America as some(prenominal) prejudiced white adults strongly believed Elviss black musical style would corrupt the white juvenility with his unadulterated dancing and crazy, animalistic rhythm. Many black performers credit Elvis with promoting their music to 1950s America allowing for future success. Singer Little Richard verbalize He was an integrator. Elvis was a blessing. They wouldnt let black music through. He opened the door for black music.9Similarly singer Al greenness agreed He broke the ice for all of us.10Elviss astonishing musical impact is depicted in that he is the only artist in four Halls of Fame Rock and Roll (1986), Country (1998), Gospel (2001) and Rockabilly (2007).Elviss radical performance style had an enormous impact on 1950s America, redefining gender, fan culture and instigating sexual liberation. In a decade of strong sexual repression, Elviss sweat, gyrating dancing moves, and energetic, uninhibited performance style stirred the 1950s female audience. At one of his first performances in July 1954, Elviss nervousness and the strong back rhythm of his music, led him to shake his leg which was further emphasized by his broad cut pants. When females began uncontrollably shout, Elvis became conscious of the reaction he was creating. He said my manager told me they were hollering because I was wiggling my l egs. I went back out for an encore and I did little more, and the more I did, the wilder they went.11He had soon perfected this technique to fully affect the female audience. He learnt to slow down and speed up in anticipation and to wind them up until they were in such frenzy he would exit the building and with no encore leave them wanting more. The hysterical, fainting, worshipping fan-girls were a relatively reinvigorated concept in 1950s America, and Elviss all-consuming control he had over his fans change the music industry and the fan phenomenon. In 1956, Reporter Lionel Crane wrote what a frenzy this boy can stir up. Ive never beguilen anything like it. When Elvis sings it isnt just a case of a few girls sighing and going swoony or stamping and shouting. I saw him send 5,000 of them into a mass fit of screaming hysterics.12Likewise Goldman describes five thousand shrill female voices come in on cue. The screeching reaches the intensity of a jet engine. When Elvis comes str iding out on stage with his butchy walk, the screams suddenly escale. They switch to hyper-space.13There are thousands of these accounts of Elviss impact on the 1950s female audience he had become a sex symbol. Hinerman believes the reason for this was that you would never marry him the romance would never end in the tedium of marriage.14This makes sense in a society with tight social norms and gender roles as Elvis was a safe, dream-like escape for many girls. Jealous teenage boys however, hated Elvis and he regularly certain violent threats. Older males detested the effect Elviss pelvis was having. Critic George Melly said Elvis was the master of the sexual simile, treating his guitar as both phallus and girl.15Similarly, television host Ed Sullivan believed he was unfit viewing for 1950s families as hes got some kind of device hanging down below the genitalia of his pants-so when he moves his legs back and forth you can see the outline of his cockI cipher its a Coke bottle.16 Sullivan later paid him a record $50,000 to advance on his manifest, which was watched by an unprecedented sixty million people.17These colossal figures show Elviss impact on American mass society in the 1950s.Elvis opened the generation gap, impacting 1950s America by establishing the teenagers identity, choice, spending bureau and fashion. Marcus believes Elvis fitted the necessity existing in every culture that leads it to urinate a perfect, all-inclusive metaphor for itselffreedom, limits, risk, authority, sex, repression, callowness, age, tradition, novelty, guilt and the escape from guilt.18Therefore as he fitted the virgin generation metaphor he changed society. Journalist Maureen Orth remembers that my aunt told me how foolish I was to sit screaming with joy at the spectacle of that vulgar singer on TV. It was then I knew that she and I lived in assorted worlds, and it was then that kids bedroom doors slammed all over America.19Elvis reached an entire generation. In h is obituary The Times said he was responsible, more than any other entertainer, for the manifestation of what has since come to be called the generation gap a youth which spoke its own language had its own heroes, its own music and its own standards.20His music touched the youth with lyrics focusing on the teen world of fashion, all the emotions, love and oppression. Goldman highlights this stating that Heartbreak Hotels grotesquely exaggerated and histrionic type matched perfectly the hysterically self-pitying mood of millions of teenagers, who responded by making the record an nictitation and immense success.21Elvis impacted America by becoming a spokesman for a generation and embodying and representing youth spirit.The establishing of a generation gap meant that teenagers began to form their own separate culture led by Elvis. An increase in spending money meant purchasing former and alongside buying his records, Elviss iconic look impacted the conservative and conformist 1950s America in terms of fashion and appearance. Goldman summarises Elvis was the flip side of this clean-cut formal male image. His fish-belly white complexion, so different from the healthy tan of the bank boys his brooding Latin eyes, heaving shaded with mascara the broad fleshly contours of his count, with the Greek poke and the thick, twisted lips the long greasy hair, thrown forward in his face by his jerking motions.22His unusual looks and exotic mixed heritage meant he instantly became a style icon. He started a trend for black slacks, pegged pants, loose, open-necked shirts and brightly coloured sharp suits which were all extremely anti-parent and even had African-American influences. For males hair, the short and neat military-style crew cut was preferred by parents and adults. Elvis had the complete opposite. His dyed black, heavily-greased, pompadour-style D.A cut with heavy sideburns instantly became the symbol of a delinquent bad-boy. This soon resulted in hair length l imitations in many schools as males across America wanted the same female attraction that Elvis received. Teenager spending power is also depicted in the sales of Elvis fan souvenirs. By 1956, his merchandise alone reached $22 million which was extraordinary at the time.23The 1950s collectables ranged from posters, lobby cards, bubble maunder cards, lipsticks, perfume, jewellery (including a dog tag with his serial number on), sneakers, hats, scarves, record players, guitars and a pink range (autograph book, diary, scrapbook and photo album) to name but a few. This commercialisation was revolutionary and illustrates the impact Elvis had.1950s America was undergoing renewal from the monopoly of cinema to substantial television growth and Elvis reined power over both however I will focus on his commodious movie career. In 1956 Elvis signed a seven year contract with Paramount Pictures and initiated his impact on American cinema. His first pic Love Me Tender added four musical num bers to capitalize on the one million advanced orders of the Love Me Tender single.24The film generated $540,000 in its first week and had made $4.5 million by the end of the year.25He continued on to release Loving You, Jailhouse Rock (grossing $4 million in the year) and King Creole.26Elvis strongly influenced film-making and revolutionised the genre of the musical. Goldman believes Elviss genius lies in combining the movie myth of the menacing teenager with rock n roll music so as to create a whole new performance idiom appropriate to that wild new form of entertainment, the rock concert.27Elviss films produced numerous iconic moments, showed the importance of star power and their impact is illustrated in their posthumous endurance.In conclusion it is clear to see a small part of the vast impact Elvis had on 1950s America. From his revolutionizing of music in terms of race and class, his radical and sexual performance style, his splitting of the generations and genders, his fan c ulture, influence and marketing, to his unique movie career establishing a whole new genre of filmmaking, this essay has attempted to show how Elvis changed American history. Composer Leonard Bernstein believes Elvis is the greatest cultural force in the twentieth century. He introduced the beat to everything and he changed everything music, language, clothes, its a whole new social revolution.28His impact is immeasurable and unequalled. Elvis Presley was the turning point, permanently transforming culture. He will continue to be of the greatest social significance for eld to come because as Marcus said He changed history as such, and in doing so became history.29Word Count 2,013