It took me a while to warm up to Elvis Presley. C’mon I’m just being honest. When I was younger I felt like I couldn’t fully embrace him because he was from my parents generation. Well it didn’t take long for the music to take a hold of me after my parents constantly played it on the old turntable. And the more I learned about Elvis and what he accomplished coming from nothing the more I started to dig him as a persona and more importantly his music.
Presley’s rise to national attention came in 1956 and as soon as he popped up he transformed the field of popular music and had a huge effect on the broader scope of popular culture. As the catalyst for the cultural revolution that was rock and roll, he was central not only to defining it as a musical genre but in making it a touchstone of youth culture and rebellious attitude. I can remember hearing about his appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show and the camera would only show Elvis from the waist up because the censors considered his dancing to be too wild.
Elvis was notorious for giving credit for his musical influence to many black rock and roll and jazz performers before him. And rock and roll’s occupation of a central position in mainstream American culture facilitated a new acceptance and appreciation of black culture because of Elvis’s music. Little Richard even said famously that “He was an integrator. Elvis was a blessing. They wouldn’t let black music through. He opened the door for black music.” His music and his personality, fusing the styles of white country and black rhythm and blues, permanently changed the face of American popular culture. And in my option, like him or not, that makes Elvis Presley pretty darned rock and roll.