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Since the beginning of his career, Elvis Presley has had an extensive cultural impact. According to Rolling Stone Magazine, "it was Elvis who made rock 'n' roll the international language of pop." Rolling Stone encyclopedia of Rock and Roll describes Presley as "an American music giant of the 20th century who single-handedly changed the course of music and culture in the mid-1950s."〔"(Elvis Presley )": a page at pbs.org with a single paragraph, attributed to palmpictures.com.〕 His recordings, dance moves, attitude and clothing came to be seen as embodiments of rock and roll. His music was heavily influenced by African-American blues, Christian gospel, and Southern country. In a list of the greatest English language singers, as compiled by Q Magazine, Presley was ranked first,〔(The Greatest Voices Of All Time - Stereogum. )〕 and second in the list of greatest singers of 20th century by BBC Radio.〔("Sinatra is voice of the century" ), ''BBC News'', April 18, 2001, retrieved October 22, 2006.〕 Presley sang both hard driving rockabilly, rock and roll dance songs and ballads, laying a commercial foundation upon which other rock musicians would build their careers. African-American performers like Big Joe Turner, Wynonie Harris and Fats Domino came to national prominence after Presley's acceptance among mass audiences of White American teenagers. 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 later observed, "Before Elvis, there was nothing." 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. During the 1940s bobby soxers had idolized Frank Sinatra, but the buyers of his records were mostly between the ages of eighteen and twenty-two. Presley triggered a lot of demand for his records by near-teens and early teens aged ten and up. 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. Meanwhile, American teenagers began buying newly available portable transistor radios〔Rich Gordon, "(How Transistor Radios and Web (and Newspapers and Hi-Fi radio) are Alike )", "Reprinted, with permission, from The Cole Papers, June 22, 2005."〕 and listened to rock 'n' roll on them (helping to propel that fledgling industry from an estimated 100,000 units sold in 1955 to 5,000,000 units by the end of 1958). Teens were asserting more independence and Presley became a national symbol of their parents' consternation. Presley's impact on the American youth consumer market was noted on the front page of ''The Wall Street Journal'' on 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."〔Ian Brailsford, "(History repeating itself: Were postwar American teenagers ripe for harvest? )" (NB Microsoft Word format): transcript of a paper delivered at "(Youth Marketing Reaches Forty )", May 17, 2001.〕 ==African American music influence== In spite of the facts that Nat King Cole had the #2 song in 1950, and the #1 song in 1951, and Chuck Berry had a major hit with "Maybellene" in 1955, in the United States in the 1950s legal segregation and discrimination against African Americans was common. Presley would nevertheless publicly cite his debt to African American music, pointing to artists such as B. B. King, Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, Ivory Joe Hunter, and Fats Domino. 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. () was very surprised to hear him talk about the black performers down there and about how he tried to carry on their music."〔Peter Guralnick (2008) ''Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley'', Paw Prints, p. 248, ISBN 1439508623.〕 Later that year in Charlotte, North Carolina, Presley was quoted as saying: "The colored folks been singing it and playing it just like I’m doin' now, man, for more years than I know. They played it like that in their shanties and in their juke joints and nobody paid it no mind 'til I goosed it up. I got it from them. Down in Tupelo, Mississippi, I used to hear old Arthur Crudup bang his box the way I do now and I said if I ever got to a place I could feel all old Arthur felt, I’d be a music man like nobody ever saw."〔Christopher John Farley (July 6, 2004). ("Elvis Rocks. But He's Not the First" ), ''TIME'', retrieved October 22, 2006〕 Little Richard said of Presley: "He was an integrator. Elvis was a blessing. They wouldn’t let black music through. He opened the door for black music."〔Jody Cook (2004). (Graceland National Historic Landmark Nomination ), United States Department of the Interior, p. 35.〕 B. B. 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.〔(Oral Histories ). PBS television interview.〕 Up to the mid-1950s black artists had sold minuscule amounts of their recorded music relative to the national market potential. Black songwriters had mostly limited horizons and could only eke out a living. But after Presley purchased the music of African American Otis Blackwell and had his "Gladys Music" company hire talented black songwriter Claude Demetrius, the industry underwent a dramatic change. 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. Of Presley, Hunter commented, "He showed me every courtesy, and I think he's one of the greatest."〔Peter Guralnick (2008) ''Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley'', Paw Prints, p. 426, ISBN 1439508623.〕 Certain elements in American society have dismissed Presley as no more than a racist Southerner who stole black music.〔Bertrand〕 "Racists attacked rock and roll because of the mingling of black and white people it implied and achieved, and because of what they saw as black music's power to corrupt through vulgar and animalistic rhythms. ... The popularity of Elvis Presley was similarly founded on his transgressive position with respect to racial and sexual boundaries. ... White cover versions of hits by black musicians ... often outsold the originals; it seems that many Americans wanted black music without the black people in it,"〔Robert Walser (1998) "The rock and roll era", in ''The Cambridge History of American Music'', Cambridge University Press, p. 358, ISBN 0521454298.〕 and Elvis had undoubtedly "derived his style from the Negro rhythm-and-blues performers of the late 1940s."〔Martha Bayles (ed.) (1996) ''Hole in Our Soul: The Loss of Beauty and Meaning in American Popular Music'', University of Chicago Press, p. 22, ISBN 0226039595.〕 The "Elvis stole black music" theme is an enduring one with arguments for and against published in books (see: "Dispelling The Myths An analysis of American Attitudes and Prejudices", Todd Rheingold, Believe In The Dream Publications, USA, 1992, LOCC:93-090296, and on Elvis websites and popular music messageboards. Several arguments are presented on the Elvis Information Network website in its Spotlight On The King section.〔(Welcome to the Elvis Information Network ). elvisinfonet.com〕 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.〔Bertrand, p. 222.〕 No wonder that Elvis became "a symbol of all that was oppressive to the black experience in the Western Hemisphere".〔Bertrand, p. 27.〕 A black southerner in the late 1980s even captured that sentiment: "To talk to Presley about blacks was like talking to Adolf Hitler about the Jews."〔Bertrand, p. 200. The author adds, "One journalist wrote upon the singer's death that African Americans refused to participate in the numerous eulogies dedicated to him."〕 In his scholarly work ''Race, Rock, and Elvis'',〔(Race, Rock, and Elvis ). University of Illinois.〕 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." The U.S. government report stated: "Presley has been accused of "stealing" black rhythm and blues, but such accusations indicate little knowledge of his many musical influences." "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." 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.〔 According to George Plasketes, several songs by other performers came out after the singer's death which are a part of a "demystification process as they portray Elvis as a racist."〔George Plasketes (1997) ''Images of Elvis Presley in American Culture, 1977–1997: The Mystery Terrain'', Haworth Press, p. 53, ISBN 1560249102.〕 In his book, ''Colored White: Transcending the Racial Past'', David Roediger considers contemporary "wiggers" (white kids "acting Black") in light of the tensions in racial impersonation embodied by Elvis Presley.〔David Roediger (2003) ''Colored White: Transcending the Racial Past'', University of California Press, p. 26, ISBN 0520233417.〕 Chuck D and others have at one point or another publicly condemned Presley for "stealing" black music. However, in 2002, Chuck D, in an interview with the Associated Press in connexion with the 25th Anniversary of Presley's death, explained how his feelings for Elvis' legacy were no longer those as originally suggested by the lyrics in "Fight The Power", a song which he had written 12 years earlier. When broadcast as a part of the NBC-produced documentary "Elvis Lives", Chuck D had the following to say about Presley. "Elvis was a brilliant artist. As a musicologist — and I consider myself one — there was always a great deal of respect for Elvis, especially during his Sun sessions. As a black people, we all knew that. (In fact), Eminem is the new Elvis because, number one, he had the respect for black music that Elvis had". As one writer stated on the controversy, "Music is a universal language, like mathematics and money. It knows few borders. Jazz began in the return of black bands from graveyard interments in New Orleans. But the bands played white hymns out to the above-ground graves."〔Gary North. (No Rhythm, No Blues: Must White Guys Always Finish Last? ) lewrockwell.com〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Cultural impact of Elvis Presley」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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