Prompt 2: Based on evidence provided in the readings, what does the popularity of Elvis in the 1950s tell us about his era? Are the reasons for his continued popularity today the same as the reasons for his popularity then?
Betrand writes about Elvis and the barriers he crossed, racial and otherwise, and that seems to be a major reason as to why he became so extraordinarily popular. Despite the one nasty rumor about Elvis being a racist, Elvis was beloved amongst young people of all ethnicities. This seems clearest when reading about the Goodwill Revue where he just walked out on stage and was immediately bombarded with screaming girls of all skin tones. This seems to me a hint, that social and racial change was imminent– maybe not quite in the air, yet, but it’s there, under the surface, as “black, brown, and beige girls” all scream for the same idol.
Rosenbaum presents us with the idea that Elvis’s popularity now is more about a connection to the man behind the King, than it is about the gyrating racial-barrier-crossing superstar that’s more reminiscent of Justin Bieber than B.B. King. The girls were screaming for him then, but now his fans look to him solemnly for comfort. There are, of course, the casual music fans, as there surely were when he first became popular, but the die-hard fans, the ones doing their pilgrimages to Graceland every year during Death Week, they’re the main reason he’s still popular– why you can still buy Elvis’s face on anything, as Bertrand discusses. And to them, Elvis as he was closer to the end of his life is the reason they feel so connected to him. They feel his pain, they know he would understand theirs. Some of them may think he heals people, heals the fans that love him dearly, but it seems to be a placebo effect. Because of this connection they have to the man, they feel they can bare their soul to his, and that he can do something about it, and because they believe it so strongly, it works. Rosenbaum puts it well when he suggests that “finding a way to love [Elvis in his decline], may be our way of finding, in our own decline, some forgiveness, some humor, even some healing.” It’s a continuation of the comparison between Jesus and Elvis as well, with these moments akin to the followers of Jesus being healed by his hands.