The impact of Elvis Presley on US society during the 1950's

The impact of Elvis Presley on US society during the 1950's was more the result of television- coverage of his performance than his music. Use the sources, and your own knowledge to explain whether you agree with thus view of the career of Elvis Presley?

Elvis was famous because of a mixture of T.V and music. He was famous because of his music because, he was a white artist who sang black music. People found his music exciting and original.

The other reason is because he was on T.V. By showing him on T.V girls loved it and they will be watching it so T.V shows will be getting more popular therefore Elvis was too. People watched Elvis because he was good looking, sexy, young and girls love his dancing.

By looking at source A. it shows that radio has made him famous. In source a they give facts about Elvis how many records he sells and he is "winner" because he is selling the most records.

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By people listening to radio, they were made to go and buy Elvis's records that then provided his popularity.

Source b shows that T.V made Elvis famous. This source has different opinions from adults, and how Elvis affects teenagers. The reason why they said T.V made him famous was because it shows how girls reacts to him and how boys also try to look like him. Adults also say that his lyrics are "un intelligent" and he has no talent etc.

Source c is positive because he came onto " sergent bilko" and toped it. The reason why this happen was because he was good looking, sexy, he had talent. Everyone turned into the programme there for that is what made him famous and also everyone loved him especially girls.

Source d shows Elvis's picture and its factual because we can see for are selves, what girls were like when he is on stage. Everyone use to go and see Elvis, because of his dancing and his looks. While Elvis was on stage girls appear to be fainting, screaming, crying etc. Elvis has a massive effect on boys and the girls. Boys want to be like Elvis, girls' just want to with him. The girls are hysterical, and the parents are worried what kind of impact he has on teenagers.

Source E shows that T.V made him famous and also their three types of groups that dislike his dancing and him.

* One group that hated him was politicians, they obviously hated him because they wanted to get votes from parents, only way they could do that is by saying bad stuff about him and tries to get as much support from parents.

* Second group that hated him was group called "Ku Klux Klan". Ku Klux Klan was a group of white people who hated black people and Elvis because he sang black music. They called Elvis "Negro Loving" and they wanted to get rid of him and all black people. They believed in segregation.

* The last person who hated Elvis was "Billy

Graham". He was a religious man who hated Elvis because of his dancing and he believed that he encouraged teenagers to have under age sex. He also was scared of him.

* Source F show "top five" singles from 1955-1957 and these were so big the sellers were always played on radio, and Elvis didn't appear with them on T.V because he was famous already. Top five in 1956 were "don't be cruel", "love me tender", and in 1957 were "all shock up", "jail house rock".

Source g shows that both T.V and radio made him famous. When he went into the army, everyone wanted to tell the story so it was the media. Everyone on radio was talking about how different it's going to be without him. On T.V every programme is trying to get Elvis on so people get to see Elvis for last time before he goes to army. Elvis is "rich and famous."

In conclusion Elvis was so famous because of radio and T.V. Elvis was really famous because of T.V, which was because 90% of American homes had T.V by 1960. There were a lot of adverts so it helped with Elvis becoming famous. Every time Elvis came on companies were rating T.V shows very hard so it showed how much famous he was getting. Elvis became so famous because so many teenagers were watching him, and he use to get $50.000 for each appearance.

However Elvis was also made famous because of radio. In America in 1960 96% of homes had radio inside it. Radios were aimed b either white or black audience but anyone could listen to it. People use to listen to different kind of music, white use to listen to white music, and black people listen to blues at the end when they mixed the music together audience weren't segregated they started to get on.

I think it was both radio and T.V because it helped each other.