BehindBlueI's
Grandmaster
- Oct 3, 2012
- 25,901
- 113
I'm sorry just for clarification, are you suggesting im a racist?
I think it's fairly common and acceptable to lable music to suggest the culture tied to it.
At that time, the black culture that created that music was not the culture of mainstream Elvis fans. The most you can credit him is with bringing a new culture to the mainstream.
Or am I just doubling down here on a racist line of thought? (Serious question)
"Black" is not a culture, and neither is white. Both encompass a wide variety of cultures and ideas. Common or not, the labels of black or white music is inherently racist. Using the labels innocently because they are common use does not make one racist, but the concept itself can only be considered racist once properly examined. It's lazy racism, not racism with malice. Is Jamaican music "black music"? Is Eminem? Nina Simone trained as a classical pianist. Did she therefore appropriate "white music"? If a white person listens to black music, is that ok? In the 90s there was a definite derogatory term for it. What about a black person listening to white music? Why is it white music? Do classical violinists and hillbilly stringband fiddlers really share a culture connection any more closely than a blues singer and a rock singer?
Elvis did not simply lift a culure and deposit it in front of new people and get acclaim. That's a gross oversimplification. He created a new culture to fans. He, along with his team, took a basic idea and built on it. Black performers of the time were not doing his...choreography, and without that sexualizing of the performance nobody would have heard of Elvis. Apperances and marketing matter in an entertainer, and remember the time was when televisions being common place in homes was still new, and much like social media today that changed the landscape. Susan Boyle is a great singer with a beautiful voice but has a face that can stop a clock and a figure suitable for a potato. She can't sex up a performance. She is not someone young girls aspire to emmulate. No matter how much producer pumped her up and how much exposure she got, she only had a low to middling career in the days of social media driven hype because of that.
Elvis was a sensation, and not all of that is because of WHO he was, but also WHEN he was. A photogenic and sexy performer willing to push boundaries in a time that was primed to be receptive to exactly that. But not just an outsider or boundary pusher. An "aw shucks kid" made good who was a big star but willing to do his time in the military when he was drafted, a perfect combination of respectability and wholesomeness mixed with sexiness and youth appeal that he had fans from all demographics. That's why Hollywood snatched him for some 4 dozen-ish moves, and that's why he's The King.