ELVIS DEFENSE FORCE

>>74434130
None of this is an issue unless you're a fat lesbian from Tumblr

>>74434130
Eminem btfo

Saw him boarding a plane after he died once

To me, the dumbest thing about the argument that Elvis stole black music is that in order to make it, you need to be completely ignorant about the origins of Rock and Roll and what Elvis's music was actually like. Elvis never really played "black music." From the beginning of his career, his music was always a blend of black rock and roll and hillbilly swing (hence, the term "rockabilly"). It was entirely deliberate, too. Pretty much every account of the recording of That's All Right Mama involves Elvis struggling to find an interesting sound until throwing out the idea that his band, which had been trying to play country swing, play a black song. After that, they recorded a country song as a rock and roll song (Blue Moon of Kentucky) and produced similar results. From then on, they kept going with that sound. Elvis never really tried to play black music; he was able to recognize some of the similarities between rock and country at the time, and he mixed them.

He was also fully willing to acknowledge his black influences. He said Fats Domino was the real king of rock and roll, covered songs he liked, and was very open about first hearing rock and roll in black neighborhoods he would hang out in. He never tried to "steal" anything. Seriously, it's pretty telling that his black contemporaries never had a problem with him, and if anything, saw him as a great advocate for them.

>>74434130
it's not that he stole, it's just that he's shit

"/mu/ is a buncha fags" - Elvis

Elvis was the ultimate Chad of his time. Who among mere mortals could have hoped to take him down?

>>74434130
Is it true that after Elvis met The Beatles he said they were "faggy, but good people"?

>>74434814
Elvis was actually a giant beta. He was very shy, a mommy's boy, and was unpopular in high school. He also let Tom Parker exploit his naivete and difficulty saying no, which confined him to doing shitty movies that ruined his career. Speaking of that difficulty saying no, here's a story I read in Scotty's Moore's autobiography

>Moore hadn't seen Elvis in years, but went to his house for dinner and talk about the Comeback Special
>While getting a tour of Graceland, Moore complimented Elvis fireplace
>Elvis looked upset at the compliment and left the room
>Moore was confused, Elvis's assistant told him that the compliment was out of line, and the Elvis couldn't give Moore the fireplace
>It turns out that saying "Hey, Elvis, I like that" had become code for "Give me that," and anytime anyone complimented something of his, Elvis just gave it up
>Moore felt terrible, chased Elvis down, and explained that he was just saying he had a nice fireplace and wasn't trying to get free shit

>>74434864
big if true

>>74434130
>artists have influences shocker, stop the presses!
i dont think the problem is that he took influence or "stole" from black culture. its that white audiences dismissed or recused blacks for being overtly sexual or wild in their music and dance thereby justifying racism. yet when a white man does it they suddenly accepted and embraced it and held him in the regards of a great innovator. he makes thousands of dollars all the while blacks doing the same often remained in poverty.

>>74435148
That's not Elvis's fault, though. He's not responsible for the racism that existed in the society he lived in. Blaming him for any of that, or using him as some kind of mascot of 1950s racism is pretty unfair.

By publicly showing his admiration for black artists and exposing millions of teenagers to parts of black culture, he did a lot to upset that system. Here's a quote from a piece Bono wrote about his influence for Rolling Stone:

>I once met with Coretta Scott King, John Lewis and some of the other leaders of the American civil rights movement, and they reminded me of the cultural apartheid rock & roll was up against. I think the hill they climbed would have been much steeper were it not for the racial inroads black music was making on white pop culture. Elvis was already doing what the civil rights movement was demanding: breaking down barriers. You don't think of Elvis as political, but that is politics: changing the way people see the world.