WI: No Elvis

mojojojo

Gone Fishin'
What if Elvis Presley is never born? How would rock and roll develop with out him? What other butterflies would there be?
 
Wow... that'd kind of suck. I mean, Elvis is my only king. Still, perhaps Buddy Holly wouldn't be killed in that airplane crash. He might rise to take the place of King. Or maybe Bill Haley or Jerry Lee Lewis. Can you picture any of them singing 'Viva Las Vegas'?
 
Then I wouldn't of had incredibly irritating neighbours a few years back who played it 24/7 and flew the Confederate flag... in Britain.
 
My impression -- if it hadn't been for Elvis, the music dubbed "Rock and Roll" would have faded from style as Soul music came to the fore -- by 1959, Ray Charles is the biggest musical celebrity, black or white.

Record producers, who, when Elvis OTL was getting started, had been looking for whites who can "sing black", change their search accordingly. If they find somebody, we could be looking at a soundtrack of the 1960's dominated not by the Beatles, the Who, and Led Zeppelin, but by the sound of Motown.
 
Elvis did not write songs. His contribution on the guitar was very secondary to his singing voice. Yes, he completed the metaphorical interracial marriage between rhythm-and-blues and country-western. But the impetus of creation of music lied with innovators like Chuck Barry and Buddy Holly.

Buddy Holly could have pulled the slack in terms of crossing the interracial barrier. After all, it was Holly who provided the biggest influence for the Quarrymen/Beatles to develop their style.

Also, we should not forget that the cutting edge of rock and roll took a back seat from 1960 to 1963, as the music form was put down over claims that it was immoral. Beach music and sing-songy teenage oriented themes were popular, while the most important developments were happening in Britain and in the evolution of soul from R&B.

The explosive union between American Soul and British rock from 1964 to 1966 was inevitable. A factor often overlooked was the spread of high fidelity music systems to homes in the period. In many ways, the evolution of rock and roll was driven by technological factors as much as cultural ones.
 
Interesting... So you think the Beatles may well still happen even without the King?

Yes, and another factor is that in the fifties, the most popular songs were covered by multiple artists. A given song might appear several times in the Billboard Magazine Top 40 (or Top 100, etc.). Radio stations had to choose whose version they would play.

Elvis did not write his songs. His absence leaves "holes" in the charts that can be filled by others. "Heartbreak Hotel" and "Hound Dog" would not have sounded the same, but they still could have been hits. Before Elvis, Bill Haley, who was white, had a big hit with "Rock Around the Clock" in 1954, establishing the term "rock and roll" and the doo-wopp beat pattern. The next year, Chuck Berry, who was black, began to compose, play and sing material that would earn him recognition as perhaps the single most influential individual in the course of the first decade of rock and roll music.

It took an incredibly short amount of time for Haley, Berry, Elvis and Buddy Holly to leave very important footprints on music. Haley fades away, Berry goes to jail, Elvis gets drafted and Holly is killed.

As American rock went into a lull, the Beatles were still aspiring musicians looking for material. True, John Lennon did say "Before Elvis, there was nothing." But Elvis did not compose. One less role model would not have stopped them. Their style would have been a little different, but they would still have been the British complement of evolving soul music. Of course, they were not alone. You still had the Kinks, Rolling Stones, Herman's Hermits, etc. waiting to invade popular music worldwide.
 
As American rock went into a lull, the Beatles were still aspiring musicians looking for material... Their style would have been a little different, but they would still have been the British complement of evolving soul music. Of course, they were not alone. You still had the Kinks, Rolling Stones, Herman's Hermits, etc. waiting to invade popular music worldwide.

Nice. OTOH, this wouldn't really be taking off until 1964 or so, and that gives Soul music a few key years to dominate in the US; and without an Elvis to turn to, I can't help but think some record companies are still going to be looking for a white man -- or, come to think of it, more likely woman -- who can sing soul music and "sound black".

At this point, and I'm less than sure of this, but this may lessen the "British invasion", or it could lead to rock and soul having a less clear line dividing them.
 
Nice. OTOH, this wouldn't really be taking off until 1964 or so, and that gives Soul music a few key years to dominate in the US; and without an Elvis to turn to, I can't help but think some record companies are still going to be looking for a white man -- or, come to think of it, more likely woman -- who can sing soul music and "sound black".

The record companies may have been looking for white R&B artists, but Top 40 radio was ready to play whatever was out there. The evolution of popular music in the late fifties and sixties is very much tied to the Top 40, a radio format that gave radio a new life as other forms of entertainment moved to television.

In 1954, broadcaster Todd Storz established the first radio station programmed around a Top 40 record survey. Storz found that record stores in Kansas City would share their sales data because his published play list helped them sort the records they sold. At the end of the year, the classic "Earth Angel" was released. Like many songs, there were versions by different artists: the original by The Penguins and a cover by The Crew Cuts.

For Storz, the decision was easy, as the Penguins version was superior. Other stations chose the Crew Cuts because they were white and the Penguins were black. When Chuck Berry made his debut, there was no question his music would go straight to the air. Storz' market share ratings were so high that his format was getting attention from broadcasters across the country. And this is before Elvis.

The sudden impact of Elvis Presley covered only a little more that two years, 1956-1958. He went into the army for two years and when he got out in 1960, his style took a more subdued tempo to match the music of the day.

Would there have been a British invasion without Elvis? I would say yes, because so many of the developments in music were directly related to the rapid improvement in high fidelity technology.
 
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