How Was Elvis Presley's Influence On American Culture

During the 1940’s through the 1950’s a new genre of music was introduced. It was named Rock ‘n’ Roll. R&R was primarily a combination of predominately African- American genres such as blues, gospel, jazz and etc. This genre become popular amongst more of the teenagers ion this era, because of the style, sound and dancing of music. Not only were the teenagers influenced by the music, they were also influenced by the “fashion” portrayed by the singers. Elvis Presley was the first enduring Rock ‘n’ Roll idol, his looks and dance moves were just as popular with the listeners as his sound was. During the era of Elvis’ popularity, he began to change the face ofrevolutionized Rock ‘n’ Roll with not only his music, but with his fashion; his styleby

The guys were simply jealous of Elvis because they saw how much of a reaction the girls had over him, they wanted to be him. Therefore, boys began to buy similar clothing to Elvis and even began styling their hair like his. “Elvis captivated the youth of America but looked down upon by parents and older generations because he was too sexually provocative and his dancing was poisoning the youth” (Wallace). Because of his powerful influence on American youth the parents and older generations were becoming

Through this genre Elvis helped create a path of integration of African-Americans but also he helped teens become their own selves. Elvis’s impact was so strong that it continued from generation to generation of teenagers and even parents listening to his variety of different styles of music. Greil Marcus summarizes Elvis’s influence on history by saying: “Because of Elvis’s arrival, because of who he is, because of his even and what he made of it, the American past, from the Civil War to the Civil Rights movement looks different than it would have looked without him. Because of that even, the future has possibilities that would have been otherwise foreclosed”