Elvis Presley’s Influence on Music in the USA

Source A

Source A is an article from a magazine called ‘Billboard’, a US magazine on 3rd March 1956. It is a positive article for Elvis Presley as it promotes his success that he has achieved. The source states that he has six hit singles on the RCA Victor label’s hit lit of top 25 best sellers. It also goes on to state that the two singles ‘heartbreak hotel’ and ‘I was the one’ is the label’s number two best seller, behind Perry Como’s ‘juke box baby’.

From this information we can draw that Elvis Presley made a huge impact on popular music in the USA in 1955. To have six hit singles in the company’s top 25 best sellers is a large percentage to the extent that he dominates the hit list and proves that he must have taken the US by storm and made his presence felt. Yet with all of the critics that he had during that time Elvis was still able to please his fans with the music they adored.

The tone of the article is that of someone who has been entertained and is only full of positive praise when writing about him.

The word ‘hottest’ is used to describe Elvis, which means that he must have been the topic of a lot of people’s discussions, as he appeared a controversial character also. Even though the headline says ‘Presley hot as $1 pistol’, which probably would been to many as a negative remark, $1 was worth more in the 1950’s compared to what it is worth now and wouldn’t be a disgrace to be compared alongside.

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Elvis Presley must have provided something different to his fans compared to all of the other artists that were around at that time, as with all of the critics that he had, he must have had a lot of fans to succeed as an artist.

This source in my opinion is a reliable one as it, compared to a lot of reviews, gives a different point of view from the negative view to the positive one about Elvis’ music. The reason why I say this is because this is a magazine, which is probably, read a lot of people which will spark off reactions mostly positive ones but also negative as some people didn’t like him in the first, let alone if he was getting positive publicity.

Study Source B, C and D.

Do sources C and D support the evidence of Source B about the impact of Elvis Presley?

Sources B, C and D seem to contradict each other as source B contains different newspaper articles describing Elvis Presley’s appearance on the Milton Berle Show on NBC-TV on 5th June 1956 which are completely negative. Compare Source B to sources C and D where source C states that the show topped Phil Silver’s Sergeant Bilko in the ratings for the first time all season, which is a positive as the show also included Elvis Presley.

Source D also contradicts the negative views of source B, as there is a photograph of Elvis performing on stage at the show, where all of the fans look ecstatic to see Elvis Presley perform and from their facial expressions, quite well too. Source B contains 3 newspaper articles from different newspapers describing Elvis Presley’s performance at the Milton Berle show, all of which do as much as they can to write something negative about his performance and ability.

• Firstly The New York Times states that Elvis Presley ‘has no singing ability’.
• Secondly The New York Journal also comments on Elvis’ voice and also the lyrics of his songs, describing them as ‘unintelligible’ and his voice ‘inadequate’. It goes on to comment on physical and that it is probably too difficult to ‘describe in terms suitable to a family newspaper’.
• Finally the Daily News takes on another level in saying that music has reached its lowest depths from the emergence and antics of Elvis Presley.

The article then states that ‘he gave an exhibition that was suggestive and vulgar’. Such words like this represent the fact that these journalist’s opinions on Elvis were created before the performance at the Milton Berle show and this probably triggered their emotions even more as Elvis was getting cheered and attention which was the complete opposite to what these critics wanted for Elvis.

Source C is a piece of writing from ‘variety’, an American television and radio magazine, June 1956.

It explains how the Milton Berle show was a success and doesn’t mention surprisingly anything negative about Elvis Presley, but also does not mention anything positive. The fact though that from what ratings suggest the show was a huge hit, means that Elvis had a part to play in this happening and although this is not stated in writing, it is clear from source D that the fans were enjoying Elvis Presley’s performance just as much as he was himself.

Source D is a photograph of Elvis performing at the show and in my view the reaction of the fans seems positive and that they are enjoying his performance an actually seeing him in the flesh. Elvis seems quite confident in the photo and this usually occurs when a person is getting positive attention. If Elvis was getting negative attention then his self confidence would have been drained and he would find it hard to complete his performance but the complete opposite is happening according the photo and this seems to have spurred Elvis on.

From all of the support thought that Elvis is getting, which can also affect someone in a negative way as they get too excited and loosen too much, he is still in full concentration as he committed to performing to the best of his ability. The photograph also shows how most of the fans were young teenage girls, who were trying to reach out to touch their idol, which shows how much they basically worshiped him. From this I can learn that Elvis had a huge impact on young teenage girls especially when he producing his rock and roll style music, as they were fond of the characteristics that he possessed.

Sources C and D do not support the evidence of source B about the impact of Elvis Presley.

Source B is a collection of articles, which represent anger for the character that has stood up to so many challenges without backing down, and this annoys people, especially people like the journalists who wrote those articles. The journalists in that source are representing their views on Elvis as a whole and not just based on his performance at the show which is clear as such words as ‘vulgar’ are used to describe Elvis, which is out of proportion.

There could be an argument known that even though Source B is useful in showing that there were a mixture of views on Elvis Presley’s music, they only represent three articles whereas the other two sources represent a larger majority of positive representation. Source C shows that with Elvis’ performance included, the Milton Berle shows topped Phil Silver’s Sergeant Bilko in the ratings for the first time all season. Source D shows a very large majority of teenagers, especially girls, showing their appreciation towards their idol.

Sources C and D, especially D provide information that suggest there is not only one view on Elvis Presley in America, which is totally negative, that there are a mixture of views on Elvis’ music.

Study Sources E and F. How useful are these sources as evidence of the impact of Elvis Presley in the mid 1950’s?

Sources E and F are another example of how US society had conflicting views about the character of Elvis Presley.

Source E gives three examples of quite powerful people’ views on Elvis.

The first is of the congressman Emmanuel Celler speaking in January 1957. He describes how rock and roll has given great opportunities to coloured people, but the music of Elvis Presley and his ‘animal gyrations violate all that I know to be in good taste. Emmanuel Celler clearly doesn’t approve of Elvis Presley’s music and his mannerisms and this is shown as such phrases as ‘animal gyrations’ are used to describe Elvis, which is quite harsh to say as he is comparing Elvis to an animal, but you can see that his emotions were probably caught up when saying that.

A congressman such as Celler’s position in society is very high especially in the United States and a lot of the public would have listened to his views and then either agreed or disagreed with him. This speech could be seen as a positive as the way he is talking suggests that he is not racist, as it seems that he is not using the fact that Elvis Presley approves of coloured against him but just simply does not like his character.

The second is from a member of the Ku Klux Klan speaking in 1956. Clearly from the speech that this member has made suggests that he despises Elvis and would rather see him dead than alive.

The member says ‘we’ve set up a twenty man committee to do away with this cannibalistic, negro-loving rock and roller. Such words as ‘cannibalistic’ and ‘negro-loving’ are hardly surprising coming from a KKK member but the fact that he is able to confess these feelings in a speech is frightening for Elvis. Elvis Presley most definitely knew that he was going to get a lot hostile reactions from the view that he was there to accept and embrace the coloured and not be against them as they so wished he would be. These are the kind of speeches that made Elvis more determined though to prove wrong those who criticised him.

Finally the third is a speech made by Billy Graham, an evangelical preacher speaking in 1957. He said that ‘I would not let my daughter cross the street to see Elvis Presley’. This reaction from Billy Graham could have been for a number of reasons as Elvis Presley was quite a controversial character but I think the most important factor here is the impact that Elvis Presley had on teenagers in the US. At the time when this speech was made, which was 1957, this was the time when Elvis took his solo career to another level in terms of him dominating the late 1950’s charts, according to source F.

Billy Graham was an evangelical preacher which meant that he was totally against things like promiscuity and this was what Elvis regarded as one of his less important issues, which leads for Billy Graham to dislike everything about him as Elvis did most things that Billy Graham was against. It could be that Billy Graham knew of Elvis Presley’s influence on teenagers and was furious that his child could have been a victim of this and rebelled against him, as this was also part of Elvis’ character.

The fact that Billy Graham mentioned his daughter in his speech shows that he was maybe frightened because of the way so many teenagers had taken to Elvis Presley and that they were the main group that bought his records. Source F is a list of the top five singles of the year 1955, 1956 and 1957. This is a good source as it shows the rise of Elvis Presley clearly in terms of record sells. In 1955 Elvis did not manage to get in to the top five singles of the year according to the list, which was because he had just signed his first contract at that time with RCA Records and was working his way to the top.

In 1956 though Elvis made himself famous with claiming four of the top five singles of the year which was a great achievement considering all of the criticism that was thrown at him along with all of the pressure that was put on to turn out a success. Elvis then claimed three of the five top singles of the year 1957 and carried on his success in the US which shows a great deal of dominance of the music industry. Sources E and F are considerably different in terms of evidence of the impact of Elvis Presley in the mid 1950’s.

The reason why I say this is because Source E gives Elvis bad publicity, with three individuals individually talking about how Elvis Presley has had a negative impact on the music industry and also US society as a whole. On the other hand though Source F sheds a positive light on nothing but Elvis’ record sells and show that the majority of US society must have liked Elvis Presley’s music at least as in 1956 and 1957 he has clearly dominated the charts. It is interesting to se that all of the speeches made by the three individuals in Source E were in 1956 and 1957, but not in 1955.

The reason for this was because Elvis had not emerged fully on the scene yet so therefore there was no need for those three particular people to feel threatened in any way. For example the Ku Klux Klan member speech was in 1956 at a time when Elvis had four of the top five singles of that year and he was threatened and worried by the views of Elvis towards coloured people as it could damage more people joining his group and instead taking the other option and agreeing with Elvis’ views on the subject of coloured people.

The sources tend to be full of emotion and may not always be accurate or true but they are nonetheless useful in explaining the impact of Elvis Presley in the mid 1950’s. These sources may not be accurate because they are quotes from a very long time ago and there has always been the problem of certain people editing speeches to support a certain argument.

Source E shows the negative impact Elvis had on US society whereas source F help explain how Elvis rose up from not being in the charts in 1955, dominating the charts in the consecutive years of 1956 and 1957.