Source:
Columbia
Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition. Q2 2015, p1-1. 1p.
Document Type:
Biography
Abstract:
Presley, Elvis (Elvis Aaron Presley),
1935–77, American popular singer, b. Tupelo, Miss. Exposed to gospel music from
childhood, Presley began playing guitar before his
adolescence. He first recorded in 1953, became a national sensation by 1956,
and dominated rock music until 1963. Presley sang successfully
in three popular idioms: country and western, rock 'n' roll, and rhythm and
blues. Although he had a pleasant baritone voice and a sincere delivery, it was
his pelvic gyrations, considered wildly sexual by an entire generation of
teenagers and their appalled parents, which skyrocketed Presley to
fame. Among his most successful songs were Heartbreak Hotel, Love Me Tender,
Hound Dog, and Don't Be Cruel. His success spawned a spate of B movies and from
1956 to 1972 he appeared in 33 motion pictures including Love Me Tender (1956),
Jailhouse Rock (1957), and Follow That Dream (1962). Presley remained
a popular and influential performer through the 1960s and 70s. His death was
attributed largely to substance abuse. Since his death, popular interest
in Presley has remained high; his home, Graceland, in Memphis,
Tenn., has been turned into a highly successful tourist attraction and pop
culture shrine. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
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Lexile:
Since emerging in the 1950s, rock has been the
dominant form ofpopular music. It originated in the United States and spread
to other English-speaking countries and across Europe in the 1960s. Eventually
it became the sound track for young people throughout the world. The history of
pop music into the 21st century has basically been that of rock and its
variants, including disco, heavy metal, punk, and hip-hop.
Early
Rock and Roll
In its early years rock was known as rock and
roll (or rock ’n’ roll). This music was largely a mix of country music and rhythm and blues. Signifying rebellion and sexuality, rock and
roll appealed to teenagers and often horrified their parents.
Frank
Driggs Collection/Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesFrank
Driggs Collection/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
By the mid-1950s such performers as Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, and Fats Domino, who had generally been considered rhythm and blues artists, were
popular with white audiences as well as African Americans. Radio disc jockeys
began calling their music rock and roll. Little Richard’s “Tutti Frutti,”
Berry’s “Maybellene,” Diddley’s “Bo Diddley,” and Domino’s “Ain’t That a
Shame”—all early rock-and-roll hits—were released in 1955.
©
Bettmann/Corbis© Bettmann/Corbis
In 1954 record producer Sam Phillips, who had
been searching for a “white man with the Negro sound and the Negro feel,” had
begun recording the country singerElvis Presley at Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee.
Records such as “That’s All Right Mama” featured Presley’s high tenor voice
singing with bluesy inflection. In 1956 the 21-year-old Presley created a
sensation with his rock-and-roll-styled “Heartbreak Hotel,” the first of his 14
records in a row that sold more than a million copies each.
Michael
Ochs Archives/Getty ImagesMichael Ochs
Archives/Getty Images
Presley’s success inspired other country performers
to sing rock and roll music in the late 1950s. They were called rockabilly
singers, and the most prominent of them were the hiccupping vocalist Buddy Holly and the frenetic singer-pianistJerry Lee Lewis. Other popular rockabilly stars included Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, Eddie Cochran, and Gene Vincent. The popularity of Presley also helped to encourage the practice
of “cover” recordings. That is, when new records by black performers appeared
on the charts, white singers would record simplified versions of the same
songs. The recordings by the white performers received wider distribution and
were consequently played on more radio stations than the original recordings.
Frank
Driggs Collection/Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesFrank
Driggs Collection/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Another trend in rock and roll in the 1950s and
’60s was vocal groups called “doo-wops” because they sang nonsense syllables in
many of their songs. Most of them featured bass singers who could sing
extremely low notes and also singers who could sing tones in extremely high
falsetto voice ranges. The Platters were one of the most popular of such
vocal
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