Yesterday’s rock 'n' roll: Bridging the gap today

By MARY DeBRUNNER

The 1950s started as a time of peace, prosperity, family values and togetherness. But before the decade ended, a rift had divided the generations. At the center of that rift were a hip-shaking rocker and four lads from Liverpool. Parents of that era feared rock ‘n’ roll and all it symbolized. But today that music and its legacy are forces that bring parents and children together.

It all began in 1954 when a southern boy by the name of Elvis Presley sang his first single, "That’s Alright, Mama." With a raspy voice that was part bluegrass and part rhythm and blues, people across the nation found it hard to believe that such a soulful voice came from a white man. Yet, when a local Memphis radio DJ played the song 14 consecutive times, it was apparent that this unprecedented style would change music forever and create fans everywhere.

Almost 50 years later and close to 25 years after Elvis’ death, Memphis, Tennessee remains a huge tourist attraction. Fans still come from far and wide to see Graceland and the legendary Sun Records Studio, all in an attempt to momentarily step into what was once part of the King’s life. In 2001, Graceland was even ranked fourth on the list of most-visited Historic House Museums in the United States.

Today fans of every age come from all over the world to visit, but when Elvis first entered the musical scene, it seemed that his fan base was only one-sided and under 21 for the most part.

Music legend Bob Dylan once claimed that hearing Elvis for the first time felt like "busting out of jail." For the first time, young people were hearing music that conveyed raw emotion and brought black music to the white mainstream. They loved it much to the chagrin of their parents, making the generation gap obvious at the time. In 1965, Elvis’ first RCA single, "Heartbreak Hotel," topped the pop, country, and rhythm and blues charts where it stayed in the Number One spot for eight weeks. It’s no surprise that in mid-1965 Presley alone brought in over half of RCA’s total income.

Indiana University rock history professor Andy Hollinden thinks that part of the reason Elvis became the phenomenon he did is due to the emergence of the "teenager" after World War II. Earlier, kids were forced to grow up and were sent to work right after they got out of school. After the war, this new class of society had money to spend, cars with radios in them, and a natural sense of youthful rebellion. The need to break out of the black and white cookie cutter image of the ‘50s prompted the context for Elvis and rock ‘n’ roll music to thrive. Like Bob Dylan, they saw his music as something new and exciting, something they had never heard before.

"When teenagers started hearing the music that we call rock, which is black music, they couldn’t go back. When this type of thing was happening in segregated America, it really drove a lot of parents bonkers," says the eternally young-looking Hollinden, with his shoulder-length wavy, brown hair and three inch sideburns.

Hollinden also believes that the reaction against rock ‘n’ roll was not just a generational issue, but a racial issue as well. The younger generation was quickly becoming immersed in the black culture and it showed in the way they dressed, danced, talked, and did their hair. America was starting to become less segregated and the older generation seemed to be quite terrified.

Glenn Gass, another rock history professor at IU, agrees that the young generation of the ‘50s borrowed a lot from the black culture during the Civil Rights Movement. To him, it seemed like a sense of being liberated from certain constraints and the way kids were brought up by acting a different way.

Not only did it seem to liberate young teenagers, it also opened up the airwaves to artists such as Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Buddy Holly, and the Everly Brothers. People who normally would have gone unheard now had the opportunity to share their music with the world.
Gass thinks Elvis created the context for the first era of rock n’ roll and converted the radio and audience to this type of music.

"To me, Elvis is like the sun in the middle of the solar system. He comes along and suddenly it makes rock ‘n’ roll a force that the music industry can’t ignore anymore," he says. "He taught rock how to swagger, how to dress, and how to be hip and what hip was. I don’t think there has been anybody that the whole audience agreed on the way everyone agreed on Elvis. It really united the audience in a way that’s never happened before."

After a while, a sort of eclipse seemed to happen when teen idols started to take over rock ‘n’ roll’s uncharted territory. People thought that the rock ‘n’ roll era was over, but something big happened again exactly 10 years after Elvis was introduced to the world, a British import, in the form of four playful and adorable young men touched down on American soil for the first time.

One day in 1964, 10-year-old Glenn Gass heard a new Ricky Nelson song on the Ozzie & Harriett show. After hearing it once again on the radio, he figured out the rest of the words to the song. He excitedly ran next door to tell them to his friend Matt Foxen. When Matt appeared at the door, he said "Forget Ricky Nelson, there's a new band, the Beatles. Doug Ling has the record. Let's go!" Suddenly Ricky Nelson didn't matter to Gass anymore and from that moment on, his life was never the same.

"For me they were my life. I mean, I measured my life by the length of John Lennon’s hair for six years. You know, you could be 12, or 22, or seven, and still love the Beatles. They were like big brothers. They were just in your life. It was like an automatic fact of life—the Beatles," Gass says.

As one of the self-professed biggest fans of all time, Gass loved everything about John, Paul, George, and Ringo, and he had the circular John Lennon frames on his glasses to prove it. Not only did he love their image and style, but he ultimately enjoyed their music and admired the influence they had on other people. They were a strong social force that had the power of capturing the audience’s attention with little effort.

In a lecture given at Indiana University, contributing Rolling Stone editor Anthony DeCurtis said that he saw the arrival of the Beatles shortly after John F. Kennedy’s assassination to be a translation of pain into optimism. The same agonizing footage of JFK’s funeral was shown on all three major networks on November 24, 1963. Not too much later The Beatles were performing on the Ed Sullivan Show and on all three of the same networks. Their wit and charm were intriguing and somewhat reminiscent to that of the late president, and many people found a lift to their sorrows.

After the arrival of the Beatles on February 7, 1964, the American public was crazy with Beatlemania. In the week of April 4, 1964, they set a record likely never to be broken: they occupied all of the top five positions on the Billboard’s Top Pop Singles chart.

Gass thought that they mirrored a lot of the important changes that occurred during the ‘60s but were making great art at the same time. He stressed that you can’t separate their music from their context.

"Now, in 2003, if the music hadn’t been really great, I don’t think they’d matter. They might have been a social force and you would read about them in history books. But that’s a lot different than listening to their music because you really love it. At a certain point, it’s gotta be the music," he says.

The younger generation of today takes college courses about these musical icons, buys their albums, and is eager to learn more about their lives. For example, the enrollment in Glenn Gass’ History of the Beatles class has jumped from 30 to 300 since its inception in 1980.

A remixed and re-mastered version of Presley’s ’68 single, "A Little Less Conversation," topped the charts in 2002, coinciding with the 25th anniversary of his death.

The albums Elvis 30 #1 Hits and the Beatles’ 1 CD have done exceptionally well in the recent past and sales continue today.
Elvis’ 30 #1 Hits debuted at Number One in 2002 and continued to be Number Nine in January, 2003.

The Beatles 1 album, released in November, 2000, has yet to fall lower than the top five positions of the Billboard Top Pop Catalog Albums chart. After 125 weeks on the chart, it has been in the number one position for most of 2003.

The Beatles’ single "Yesterday" is one of the most played songs in history and remains the most covered song of all time with more than 3,000 versions. Its lyrics make it a timeless piece that can span the ages. McCartney sings with such deep emotion and despair that anyone would find it hard not to be moved by such a musical expression. Anyone who has broken up with a first love, lost an important friend or family member, or is just feeling down can relate to the words of the Beatles "Yesterday" or Presley’s "Always on My Mind."

This is one reason why their music has stayed for so long: the messages and emotions behind their songs transcend the times and are still relevant. Today, for example, we find ourselves amidst a war and would find nothing more fitting than a rendition of the Beatles’ "All You Need is Love" or Presley’s "American Trilogy." Even John Lennon, in his solo career, created the masterpiece, "Imagine," that spoke about a utopian world that he dreamed of.

The beauty of his lyrics in this song struck a chord in many people all over the world back then, and they continue to do so today. The Beatles’ lyrics speak to their fans in a multitude of ways, making the band an important mouthpiece for all generations.

Gass has had a number of students approach him after class or e-mail him telling him the same thing: they can now share a love for this music with their parents. The very thing that once drove two generations apart is now bringing them together, and the secret behind this force is the music. Hollinden observed that the cream always rises to the top and that these classics forever will be regarded in the highest light.

Hollinden’s outlook on rock is that it is like a pizza. When it first came out, people went pizza crazy and couldn’t get enough of it. After awhile people started experimenting with it, adding pepperoni and sausage, instantly creating classic pizzas. Today there are a number of new types of pizza, like chicken basil and barbeque chicken. They may be good but they aren’t as good as the originals.

Likewise, early rock ‘n’ roll continues to saturate everything today from the movies to television commercials. This saturation has made it close to impossible for other artists to do anything that would seem new and as special as the classics created by the founding fathers of rock ‘n’ roll. Besides that fact, both Hollinden and Gass say that because the current music industry is so fragmented with many media outlets and different and competing musical styles, rock ‘n’ roll is a great classical era that lives even while new music is being created.

Elvis and the Beatles remain some of the top grossing celebrities with steady sales of their albums and paraphernalia. It doesn’t seem like their legacies will be leaving us anytime soon.

"Both Elvis and the Beatles changed the world very dramatically. I would maybe ask you to think of one president that we’ve had in the last 50 years that has changed the world down to the roots of the people as much as these guys. Elvis in terms of racial barriers and the Beatles in how they dressed, the drugs they took, and how they cut their hair," Hollinden says and then continued, whispering out loud, "Can you imagine anyone today having that power?"