Little Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll Movement

1077 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Elvis presley impact on american culture

In today’s world, thrusting your hips on national television wouldn’t be an issue for most people. We have songs that use profanity, degrade women, men, children, and even animals. If you jump back almost 70 years, moving your hips back and forth was the equivalence of this. Someone always wanted to push the boundaries and see how far they could go until someone said stop. Elvis did just that. He showed the world what a little sex, drugs, and rock and roll could do for society. But Elvis couldn’t have done this new and controversial movement alone. He needed help. He needed music and that music was the song “You Ain’t Nothing But a Hound Dog.” This song progressed what live entertainment meant. Parents through up their arms in a rage, and teens jumped to their feet to see every “vulgar” movement. This song left a never-ending impact on society and is still used today throughout the entertainment industry. Most people believe that the song, “You Ain’t Nothing But a Hound Dog,” was originated by Elvis, this is incorrect. The song went through numerous revisions in order to get to its final destination.

Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller were young songwriters that had the dream of making it big. They are wrote numerous songs that had been played in some garages, but nothing that was sticking to the mainstream. That was until they came across Willie Mae “Big Mamma” Thornton. She was an African American woman that had a passion for Jazz. She had been roughed up with scares on her face and a few extra pounds. When Leiber and Stoller met her they didn’t really know what to say, they had not seen anything truly like it. This inspired them to originally write the song. They wanted the song to portray a woman telling her man to take a walk. ...

... middle of paper ...

... try something new. Being brave can be an incredible thing.

Works Cited

Daily, Robert. Elvis Presley: the king of rock 'n' roll. New York: F. Watts, 1996.

Fraser, Benson P., and William J. Brown. "Media, Celebrities, and Social Influence: Identification With Elvis Presley." mass communication and society 5, no. 2 (2002): 183-206. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/S15327825MCS0502_5

Guralnick, Peter. Last train to Memphis : the rise of Elvis Presley / Peter Guralnick. London: Abacus, 2002.

Leiber, Jerry, Mike Stoller, and David Ritz. Hound dog: the Leiber and Stoller autobiography. Simin & Schuster hardcover ed. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2009.

Mahon, Maureen. "Listening for Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton’s Voice: The Sound of Race and Gender Transgressions in Rock and Roll." Women and Music: A Journal of Gender and Culture 15, no. 1 (2011): 1-17.

Show More
Related

  • Blackboard Jungle

    847 Words  | 2 Pages

    Prompt 1 Mr. Dadier and Gregory Miller’s relationship throughout Blackboard Jungle reflects the socioculture happenings in the civil rights movement in relation to rock-and-roll. The beginning of the film opens with its only rock song Bill Haley and the Comets “Rock Around the Clock” and Dadier first encountering a group of students dancing, harassing a woman and gambling or as Shumway (125) describes, “helping to define the culture’s conception of dangerous youth and to make rock & roll apart of that definition.” The opening scene informs both Mr. Dadier and the viewer that rock-and-roll has already reached this racially integrated school noting that Gregory Miller has yet to be in a seen. For the viewers of this 1955 movie there would be a more profound reaction to the sight of a racially integrated school dancing to “Rock Around the Clock” because just a year before Brown vs Board of Education was passed which according to Szatmary (21) “helped start a civil rights movement that would foster an awareness and acceptance of African American culture, including the African American based rock-and-roll.” Since rock-and-roll was recognized as created by African-Americans it is easy for white Americans of the time to use African-American culture as a scapegoat for unruly teen behavior presented in the opening scene. The first scene Gregory Miller is introduced there is tension between him and Mr. Dadi...

    Read More

  • Johnny Cash and Luke Bryan

    1286 Words  | 3 Pages

    Johnny Cash: The Life. Patriquin, Martin. Maclean’s. 12/2/2013. Vol. 126 Issue 47, pg 76. 2 black and white photographs

    Read More

  • A Critical Review of All Shook Up

    753 Words  | 2 Pages

    The book depicts the story of culture conflicts of the music, which arose from the introduction of the foot-tapping, hip-swaying music now known as rock n' roll (Graarrq). The outcome of rock n’ roll coincided with tremendous uproar in the movement to grant civil rights to African American. Trapped in the racial politics of the 1950s, rock n’ roll was credited with and criticized for promoting integration and economic opportunity for blacks while bringing to “mainstream” cloture black styles and values (Altschuler). Black values were looked over and kind of not important to whites. Whites were very much so well treated then blacks were, however no one spoke out until the outcome of rock n’ roll.

    Read More

  • All Shook Up: How Rock 'n' Roll Changed America

    792 Words  | 2 Pages

    The development of Rock ‘n’ Roll in the late 1940s and early 1950s by young African Americans coincided with a sensitive time in America. Civil rights movements were under way around the country as African Americans struggles to gain equal treatment and the same access to resources as their white neighbors. As courts began to vote in favor of integration, tensions between whites and blacks escalated. As the catchy rhythm of Rock ‘n’ Roll began to cross racial boundaries many whites began to feel threatened by the music, claiming its role in promoting integration. This became especially problematic as their youth became especially drawn to ...

    Read More

  • Black Artists in Country Music

    2843 Words  | 6 Pages

    Lewis, George H. “Lap Dancer or Hillbilly Deluxe? The Cultural Constructions of Modern Country Music”. Journal of Popular Culture, Winter 97, Vol. 31 Issue 3, p163-173, 11p

    Read More

  • Elie Wiesel's Holocaust Experiences Portrayed in the 'Night'

    1637 Words  | 4 Pages

    Interview by Oprah Winfrey. Oprah. The Oprah Magazine, Nov. 2000. Web. 5 Apr. 2011.

    Read More

  • Rock n Roll & 20th Century Culture

    1464 Words  | 3 Pages

    Although he later denied that he ever said it, Sam Phillips-the man who discovered Elvis Presley-is reputed to have said, “if I could find a white man who had the Negro sound the Negro feel, I could make a billion dollars” (Decurtis 78). Certain radio stations would not play the work of black artists in the segregated America of the 1950s. But, nevertheless, rock ‘n’ roll was an art form created by African-Americans. Little Richard, whose songs “Tutti Fruitti” and “Long Tall Sally” became hits only after white-bread versions were made by Pat Boone, said, “It started out as rhythm and blues” (Decurtis 78).

    Read More

  • How Elvis Presley Brought Racial Equality

    624 Words  | 2 Pages

    Like Martin Luther King Jr. said, “We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.” In the 1950’s the South was heavily racially segregated. Elvis Presley unintentionally put himself in the position to become a valuable instrument in the battle against segregation. “Without casting himself as a fighter for racial equality, Elvis became a subversive standard bearer for cultural desegregation at a time when the codified racism of the South was under increasing pressure.” How did an uneducated white hillbilly from the south influence both black and white teenagers against segregation? It was quite simple, for Elvis Presley had a unique talent of combining traditional black music; such as the blues and jazz, with the traditional white music; like country and white gospel. This unique style of blending different types of music, gave Elvis the edge on the musical racial barriers America was facing; and open the path for both sides to enjoy the music together and therefore desegregated.

    Read More

  • Who Killed Martin Luther King

    2636 Words  | 6 Pages

    Ray, James Earl. Who Killed Martin Luther King? The True Story By the Alleged Assassin. Washington, D.C.: National Press Books, 1992.

    Read More

  • Chuck Berry

    1841 Words  | 4 Pages

    McPherson, Ian. “The Salt of the Earth: 1955-1960 R&B-Derived Rock & Roll.” Time Is On Our

    Read More

  • The Impact of Rock 'n' Roll on the Civil Rights Movement

    1581 Words  | 4 Pages

    Dundy, Elaine. Elvis and Gladys: The Genesis of the King. N.p.: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1985.

    Read More

  • Almost Famous: Sex, Drugs, and Rock-n-Roll

    1515 Words  | 4 Pages

    “I’m a golden god,” Russell Hammond shouts from a roof top as he is about to jump off into a pool from a bad acid trip. The iconic rock-n-roll scene of inflated egos and strung out rock stars. However, this is a rare occurrence in Almost Famous. It is a story of a boy, William Miller (Patrick Fugit), becoming a man while learning about the rock-n-roll culture with his only true friend, his tape recorder. William, age fifteen, is traveling with the band Stillwater to interview them for a Rolling Stone article, along the way he has many interesting experiences. Some of these including letting all the groupies stay in his room, almost crashing on an airplane with the band, and falling in love with the illustrious Penny Lane.

    Read More

  • Coretta Scott King

    1744 Words  | 4 Pages

    Fulton , Greg. "Coretta Scott King (1927-2006)." TIME 31 Jan. 2006: Web. 6 May 2010.

    Read More

  • Racism In The Music Industry Essay

    1925 Words  | 4 Pages

    The music industry’s history is a convoluted mess. There is no real consensus on what the music industry IS and what paths it has taken. Were the Beatles the greatest band to ever exist? Maybe. Is there a hyper objectification of women throughout the “men’s club” that is the music industry? Probably. It’s this hard to define, frankly confusing business that is worth roughly $130 billion dollars today. With it’s flimsy and opaque edges, can the music industry ever be called into question on its wrongdoings? The racist undertone throughout its history may force it to. With the music industry as an ever growing business that seems to change almost every decade, the one thing that has not changed throughout time is an undercurrent of racism that

    Read More

  • The Influence of Martin Luther King Jr.

    812 Words  | 2 Pages

    American & World History. http://www.history.com/topics/martin-luther-king-jr (accessed October 1, 2013). Primary source: a. King, Martin Luther, and Clayborne Carson. The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. New York: Intellectual Property Management in association with Warner Books, 1998.

    Read More

More about Little Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll Movement

Open Document