History 305

Devine

Fall 2006

Study Questions for December 4th

 

 

Robert Pielke, Elvis and the Negation of the Fifties

 

  1. How, if at all, did rock’n’roll challenge the values of mainstream Americans during the Cold War?

 

 

  1. Why did parents and self-appointed “cultural arbiters” denounce rock music?  Were they overestimating its power or were they right to see it as a threat?  What explains their obsession with Elvis Presley in particular? Why did they “dread” him?

 

 

  1. Why is it significant that rock music seems to have gotten its start in the South?  What were the contributions of southern rockabilly and rhythm and blues to rock music?

 

 

  1. Why did it matter than Elvis appealed to working-class and middle-class kids?

 

 

 

  1. According to Pielke, Elvis was a revolutionary.  In fact, without him there would have been no revolution – “A white man had to play the blues.”   Why does he say this? Do you agree?

 

 

  1. On page 149, Pielke says, “The point is that he [Elvis] knew very well what he was doing, and we knew that he knew, and he knew that we knew that he knew.  Ed Sullivan didn’t know and our parents didn’t know, but we didn’t care, and he didn’t care either, and we and he knew that too.”  What does all of this mean?

 

 

  1. Pielke argues that there was a “real” Elvis and a “symbolic” Elvis.  What was the difference between the two?  Why does Pielke find one more interesting than the other?

 

 

  1. Why did parents prefer Pat Boone and teenagers prefer Elvis?

 

 

  1. What was the difference between “Beats” and “Greasers?”  Why did kids envy them and parents fear them?  What role did the media play in popularizing these two “types?”

 

 

  1. How did Elvis Presley “negate” accepted beliefs about race, sex, and the Protestant work ethic?

 

 

Robert Pielke, The Beatles and the Affirmation of the Sixties

 

  1. According to Pielke, why was the assassination of John F. Kennedy a pivotal turning point in American history?

 

 

  1. What role did the Beatles play in precipitating a “conversion experience” or change of consciousness in many American young people? How did they tap into a “yearning for something ultimate” and become “the long-awaited promise for filling the void?”

 

 

  1. How did the movie Yellow Submarine depict the Beatles’ view of human nature?  Or, why did it matter that the “Blue Meanies” were converted, not killed? [See p. 168]

 

 

  1. Pielke argues that “as individuals and [as] a group, the Beatles reached a generation that was looking for a new set of values to replace those found no longer meaningful.” [See page 172]  How did the new set of values the Beatles came to symbolize differ from the values of the established order?  What were the new values?  What values did the Beatles retain from the traditional set of American values?

 

 

  1. Why does Pielke believe that the Beatles (as symbols of something greater) have a continuing relevance to Americans, particularly “children of the sixties?” What is this “something greater” that they point to or symbolize?

 

 

  1. The Beatles failed to overturn the prevailing order.  They and their admirers did not accomplish a “cultural revolution.”  If their values did not replace the traditional values, why does Pielke still argue that they were a success?

 

 

  1. According to Pielke, what were some characteristics of the “hippie style?” [See pp. 180-81.]

 

 

  1. How does individuality differ from individualism? Why did the new set of values prize the former, but not the latter?