History 476

Devine

Spring 2007

Study Questions for April 17th

 

 

Michael Bertrand, The King of Rock as Hillbilly Cat

 

  1. How does taking a closer look at the origins an various performances of the song “Hound Dog” challenge the simplistic tale of “cultural appropriation” recounted Alice Walker’s novel based on the lives of Elvis Presley and “Big Mama” Thornton?

 

 

  1. Why, according to Bertrand, has Elvis Presley become “an easy target for those who have politically charged yet often illogically based agendas”?  Why have things that never happened (such as Elvis spending “many hours” listening to Bo Diddley in Harlem) been presented as “historical facts”?

 

 

  1. What evidence does Bertrand introduce to discredit the myth that Elvis had no following among African Americans?

 

 

  1. What evidence does Bertrand introduce to discredit the myth that Elvis “stole” his act from African Americans?  How does he demonstrate that Elvis’s brand of music was an eclectic amalgam of numerous influences?

 

 

  1. How does the assumption that Elvis was out to “copy” black music in order to become a commercial success ignore the historical realties of life in the South during the 1950s?  In 1954, was “acting black” and “crossing the color line” a likely road to success for a white artist?

 

 

  1. How did Elvis “change the rules of the popular music game”? (211)

 

 

  1. How was Presley’s experience growing up as a poor, white southerner similar to the experiences of poor African American southerners? 

 

 

  1. What evidence does Bertrand introduce to discredit the myth that Elvis never publicly credited the black roots of his music?  Why is it unrealistic to expect Elvis, in 1956, to have called on the music industry to reimburse minority entertainers?

 

 

  1. How did the experience of poverty and low social status shape Elvis’s attitude about his own success?  How did growing up poor and marginalized shape his music?

 

 

  1. Why did the fabricated quotation attributed to Elvis regarding black people buying his records and shining his shoes become a “fact”?  Why did Elvis’s reputation among blacks decline over the years?

 

 

  1. Why does the myth of Elvis as “racist” and “cultural thief” persist when the facts don’t support it?

 

 

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?

 

 

Linda Martin and Kerry Seagrave, From the Waist Up

 

1.       What did the mainstream media think of Elvis Presley?

 

2.       Why did the Communists consider Elvis a “Cold War Weapon”?

 

3.       Why did Colonel Parker, Elvis’s manager, insist that Elvis change his appearance and keep him from performing live?

 

4.       How was the Elvis of 1961 different from the Elvis of 1956?