1950's Music Analysis

The Shane Dillehay

Professor

Lyrics Class

10/22/2015

Impact of Music

Music of the 1950’s went through three different fazes making it the mark of the century when it came to genres that were influenced by many individual record labels. Out of the many artists that contributed; one stood out. Elvis Presley, the international speaker and song writer, promoted the early pop era into becoming a world mainstream according to Rolling Stones Magazine. Presley’s famous recordings, crazy dance moves, positive attitude, and sense of style earned him the number one best singer in the 20th century state by BBC radio. His music was greatly influenced by African American Blues, Christian Gospels, and Southern Country singers. By the way he lived his life

and promoted himself and his music, Elvis Presley changed the course of music and its culture throughout the 50s. His music was written and produced during the post-World War II time period. Out of his countless different but related albums two stood out the most, Hound Dog and Jail House Rock both produced in the early to mid-1950s. These two songs with their astonishing lyrics and catchy base-line earned them a spots as a “breakthrough” song for Elvis’ career.
What is a “breakthrough” song? Well according to dictionary.com, a breakthrough is, “any significant or sudden advance, development, achievement, orincrease, as in scientific knowledge or diplomacy, that removes a barrier to progress:” Therefor by definition a breakthrough song opens the doors to agents, press, publishers, producers, radio, and record companies. DJs look forward to playing it. Listeners look forward to hearing it. So when it comes to Elvis Presley, Hound Dog and Jailhouse Rock are two of his many breakthrough songs of his career.
The influences that Elvis Presley himself along with his music had on the people of his time is one that sticks out in history. Post World War II or better known as the “Economic Boom” was a time of restructuring the way life was being lived. During this time of rebuilding many parents were able to supply for teens and their expensive hobbies including music. While most singers in that time period attracted early and aged adults, Presley’s music attracted teens aging from ten and up. Because of Presley’s unimaginable sense of style and his good looks teen marketing of the 1950’s sky rocked through the roof. Teens were attracted to his style due to it being completely opposite of what the parent generation was. As for the boys black velvet slacks with open chested shirts became popular and for the girls they were granted record players. Through these various obstacles that Presley had endured he became the hit voice of the Rock-in-Roll era. Though he can’t be credited for creating the Rock-in-Roll era he did however invent “Rockabilly”. The fact that Elvis Presley was able to combine various styles of music together to form his own style is remarkable. His style was liked by all kinds of different people whether they were young or old. Even people from other countries were in love with Elvis and his unique style as a singer. As he got older Presley’s all around style began to change but in a good way. At this time Presley was not only attracting teens the most, now he would be attracting more mature audiences. Through Presley’s accomplishments along with even becoming movie star named him a World Icon.
When it comes to Elvis Presley, one song that comes to the mind of many is Hound Dog.

Elvis’ version of this song is based on a Texas group called Freddie Bell and The Bell Boys. Elvis and his band explored the Vegas strip one night and somehow ended up in the Sahara. When they arrived in the lounge they came to find out that Freddie Bell and The Bell Boys were the ones preforming on that current night. Throughout the night they played several different songs, but the one that stuck out the most to Elvis was their comedic version of “Hound Dog”. Elvis liked it so much he decided to put his own spin on the song. Elvis did not use the same exact words as Big Mama, instead he put his own twist, but still kept the skeleton of the song the same. In Elvis’ version of the song he sings about how he is disappointed with his lover by say, "Well, they said you was high-classed, but that was just a lie" six times. But when it comes to Thorton’s original song, she sings the line twice as "You told me you was high class, but I can see through that.” which is one of the main differences between the two songs. Hound Dog was finally released on July of 1956, and it lived up to every expectation and more. However when it was originally released it was kept out of the top spot. Soon after "Hound Dog" made it to number one on the R&B and country charts. But finally, "Hound Dog" became the number one pop song, a huge first in the recording history. Later, both Elvis’ songs, "Hound Dog" and

"Don't Be Cruel" were presented a platinum rank. On top of all these awards, on September 1, 1956 "Hound Dog" was voted the number one most played song on the juke boxes. Elvis immediately added "Hound Dog" to his list of songs to play, then not long after it became his go to song to bring the house down at the end of his performances. “Hound Dog” became the song Elvis would sing at any and every event, whenever he could, and the song that everyone wanted to hear over and over again. This song immediately became linked to Elvis’ amazing career and voice.
Jailhouse Rock was not only a breakthrough movie for Elvis, but also a breakthrough song.

It was written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, both of which also wrote "Hound Dog," This song was featured in the movie with the same exact name where Elvis was the star of the film. This movie became famous for the scene where Elvis performs this song in an extravagant dance number as expected for Elvis. Jailhouse Rock, the song, is famous uniqueness and its classic sound. As his career grew, Presley made more and more movies, however producers realized that these movies did not need any songs in them in order to attract an audience. Simply having him in the movie was enough to attract a huge crowd. Elvis was one of those rare artists whose appeal could attract the attention of almost any type of listener solely due to his name.

Jailhouse Rock and Hound Dog, were both composed by Leiber and Stoller during the Rock-N-Roll mainstream of the 1950’s. Songs that are written by Leiber and Stoller often take place in unfamiliar situations and are very clever. This is true of Jailhouse Rock and Hound Dog as Hound Dog is centered on a women rejecting her man and calling him a dog and Jailhouse is focusing on events that are taken place in a jail. Both songs were written with the elements of Blues music and although they have been sung by other artist Elvis Presley’s versions have been the most

popular.
While both songs were written by the same authors and sung by Presley there are differences in these two songs. Many critics heard Jailhouse Rock as having various different homosexual references. But when it came to Presley’s performance of the song, he focused greatly on the aspects of the Rock-N-Roll era. During the time of which Presley sang Jailhouse Rock it was during the beginning of his acting career after he has already became a world rock sensation. After most performances that Elvis Presley took part in, Presley usually always closed the night with the same song, Hound Dog. Through this song is when Presley began his trade mark of sexual gyrations that were used to arouse the crowd.
During the mid to late teens Leiber and Stoller began to writing the song Hound Dog. Because of the lyrics of this song were so easily to come up with most of it was composed in the car. After the number one hit of the song Hound Dog by Elvis Presley Leiber and Stoller were both hired to write more songs for Elvis including Jailhouse Rock. Originally Leiber and Stoller did not like the version Presley performed of the song Hound Dog. But after so many copies of the song were sold, their opinions began to change.
In the 1950’s very few songwriters and performers met Presley’s standards. He is one of the first to perform differently than anyone else by breaking the mold of the norms in performing. At this day in age very few people talked about sex openly, yet sexuality was one of the main aspects in his live performances. Due to these dance moves many of Presley’s audiences didn’t like him because he went against standard American values.