Cultural impact of Elvis Presley

African-American performers such as Big Joe Turner, Wynonie Harris and Fats Domino came to national prominence after Presley's acceptance among mass audiences of white American adults.

Singers like Jerry Lee Lewis, the Everly Brothers, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Little Richard, Buddy Holly, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, and others immediately followed in his wake.

John Lennon commented the day after the Beatles visited the singer at his home: "The only person that we wanted to meet in the United States of America was Elvis Presley.

"[4] During the post-WWII economic boom of the 1950s, many parents were able to give their teenage children much higher weekly allowances, signaling a shift in the buying power and purchasing habits of American teens.

Along with Presley's "ducktail" haircut, the demand for black slacks and loose, open-necked shirts resulted in new lines of clothing for teenage boys, whereas a girl might get a pink portable 45 rpm record player for her bedroom.

[citation needed] Presley's impact on the American youth consumer market was noted on the front page of The Wall Street Journal for December 31, 1956, when business journalist Louis M. Kohlmeier wrote, "Elvis Presley today is a business", and reported on the singer's record and merchandise sales.

Half a century later, historian Ian Brailsford (University of Auckland, New Zealand) commented, "The phenomenal success of Elvis Presley in 1956 convinced many doubters of the financial opportunities existing in the youth market.

The reporter who conducted Presley's first interview in New York City in 1956 noted that he named blues singers who "obviously meant a lot to him.

King said he began to respect Presley after he did Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup material and that after he met him, he thought the singer really was something else and was someone whose music was growing all the time right up to his death.

In the spring of 1957, Presley invited African American performer Ivory Joe Hunter to visit Graceland and the two spent the day together, singing "I Almost Lost My Mind" and other songs.

The singer was interviewed several times on air by the DJ and was pointedly asked which school he had attended, to convince listeners that he was white.

[16] In 1957, Presley had to defend himself from claims of being a racist; he was alleged to have said, "The only thing Negro people can do for me is to buy my records and shine my shoes."

[19][20] A southern background combined with a performing style largely associated with African Americans had led to "bitter criticism by those who feel he stole a good thing", as Tan magazine surmised.

[22] In his scholarly work Race, Rock, and Elvis,[23] Tennessee State University professor Michael T. Bertrand examined the relationship between popular culture and social change in America and these allegations against Presley.

Professor Bertrand postulated that Presley's rock and roll music brought an unprecedented access to African American culture that challenged the 1950s segregated generation to reassess ingrained segregationist stereotypes.

The American Historical Review wrote that the author "convincingly argues that the black-and-white character of the sound, as well as Presley's own persona, helped to relax the rigid color line and thereby fed the fires of the civil rights movement."

However much Elvis may have 'borrowed' from black blues performers (e.g., 'Big Boy' Crudup, 'Big Mama' Thornton), he borrowed no less from white country stars (e.g., Ernest Tubb, Bill Monroe) and white pop singers, and most of his borrowings came from the church; its gospel music was his primary musical influence and foundation.

"[citation needed] Whether or not it was justified, the fact remains that distrust of Presley was common amongst the general African-American population after the accusations of racism were made public.

[25] According to George Plasketes, several songs by other performers came out after the singer's death, which are part of a "demystification process as they portray Elvis as a racist.

However, in 2002, Chuck D, in an interview with the Associated Press in connection with the 25th Anniversary of Presley's death, explained how his feelings for Elvis's legacy were no longer those as originally suggested by the lyrics in "Fight The Power", a song which he had written 12 years earlier.

[31] Some performers became resentful (or resigned to the fact) that Presley going on stage before them would "kill" their own act; he thus rose quickly to top billing.

[31] At the two concerts he performed at the 1956 Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show, one hundred National Guardsmen were on hand to prevent crowd trouble.

Regardless of whether parents were aware of the Negro sexual origins of the phrase 'rock 'n' roll,' Presley impressed them as the visual and aural embodiment of sex.

"[34] In 1956, a critic for the New York Daily News wrote that popular music "has reached its lowest depths in the 'grunt and groin' antics of one Elvis Presley" and the Jesuits denounced him in their weekly magazine, America.

[citation needed] Similar attempts to stop his "sinful gyrations" continued for more than a year and included his often-noted January 6, 1957, appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show (during which he performed the spiritual number "Peace in the Valley"), when he was filmed only from the waist up.

The Louisville chief of police, for instance, called for a no-wiggle rule, so as to halt "any lewd, lascivious contortions that would excite the crowd".