Elvis: Americas King :: essays research papers

Americas KingElvis Presley may be the wizard almost outstanding figure in American 20th snow popular music. Not necessarily the best and for certain not the most consistent. But no one could argue with the fact that he was the player most responsible for popularizing rock & divagate on an international level. Viewed in cold sales figures, his impact was phenomenal. Dozens upon dozens of international smashes from the mid-50s to the mid-70s, as well as the steady sales of his catalog and reissues since his death in 1977, may make him the single highest-selling per manikiner in history.More important from a music lovers perspective, how incessantly, are his remarkable artistic achievements. Presley was not the really first white man to sing rhythm & blues blossom Haley predated him in that regard, and there may have been others as well. Elvis was certainly the first, however, to assertively fuse country and blues music into the style cognize as rockabilly. While rockabilly arr angements were the foundations of his first (and possibly best) recordings, Presley could not have flummox a mainstream superstar without a much more(prenominal) varied palette that also incorporated pop, gospel, and even some bits of bluegrass and operatic shmaltz here and there. His 1950s recordings established the basic language of rock & roll his explosive and sexual stage presence set standards for the musics visual word-painting his vocals were incredibly powerful and versatile. Unfortunately, to much of the public, Elvis is more icon than artist. innumerable bad Hollywood movies, increasingly caricatured records and mannerisms, and a personal life that became steadily more sheltered from real-world concerns (and steadily more bizarre) gave his story a clean mythic status. By the time of his death, hed become more a image of gross Americana than of cultural innovation. The continued speculation about his incredible life history has sustained interest in his life, and supported a large holidaymaker/entertainment industry, that may last indefinitely, even if the fascination is fueled more by his celebrity than his music. Born to a poor Mississippi family in the heart of Depression, Elvis had moved to Memphis by his teens, where he absorbed the vibrant melting pot of Southern popular music in the form of blues, country, bluegrass, and gospel. After graduating from high school, he became a truck driver, rarely if ever singing in public. Some 1953 and 1954 demos, recorded at the emerging sunshine label in Memphis primarily for Elvis own pleasure, helped stir interest on the part of Sun owner Sam Phillips.