Elvis Presley's Impact On Domestic Life During The Cold War

The rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union, otherwise known as the Cold War had a large effect on domestic life in America, impacting people of all socioeconomic backgrounds. Even American legends, such as Elvis Presley, were impacted by the Cold War. Suffering through poverty, Presley’s route to success was a prime example of the hardships one faced in order to achieve the American Dream. The Cold War impacted domestic life through creating financial instability, sparking the youth rebellion and boosting nationalism in all of America. These changing aspects of domestic life, as a result of the Cold War, also affected Elvis whose opinion is often ignored when speaking of the subject .

Before his triumphant success, Elvis Presley

The Presleys lived a destitute life, similar to most other people at the time. They were poor, had limited possibilities, lived on margins and religion was important to them (Halberstam 462). Although he had poor and uneducated parents, Presley had high aspirations, different from everyone else he grew up with (Pendergast 106). Elvis attended an all-white high school and performed in many talent shows (“Elvis Aron Presley”). He always craved attention and had a sense of groove to his style. In his school years, he started to make a statement by wearing black clothes, flipping his collar up in the back and supporting the American punk style (Halberstam 463). Growing up in a time of segregation, black style music was highly unpopular and was looked down upon, but Presley was different. “For Elvis Presley, living in a completely segregated world, the one thing that was not segregated was the radio dial”

The generation of youth at the time was one of the tallest and best educated ever seen. In addition, they were heavily influenced by the entertainment industry, which can helped define their generation as somewhat culturally distinct from the societies that nurtured them (Walker 201). All sorts of black rhythms were highly frowned upon by the older generations and in result, disliked Elvis’s style. Breaking away from the habits of their parents, Elvis had become popular with the teenagers of America and had become a well known voice. Knowing that Presley's music was influenced by black music added to Presley's popularly and made him more of a hero among the young (Halberstam 473). Elvis was everything they wanted: a white boy to explode into the beat and capture it for whites (Halberstam 472). “Before Elvis was nothing” (Halberstam 457). However, their rebellious liberation terrified the adult establishment (Pendergast 106). Influenced by the King of rock, the youth began to dress in flashy "pimp" clothing, non-masculine colors, support the "greaser" look, and eat foods that were native to Presley himself (Pendergast 108). In fact Presley became “the greatest cultural force in the 20th century” (Halberstam 457). “There was, after all, a new and burgeoning market: the American teenager. The country's approximately thirteen million teenagers had annual earnings,