Elvis’s SNL appearance was a brilliant piece of theatre. He knew exactly what he was doing. He may have been relatively unknown prior to that appearance, but not afterwards. It got a ton of press attention. Clearly it worked if you still remember it and are talking about it 40+ years later.
All these years later, Elvis continues to evolve, experiment, and explore new musical avenues. Which can’t be said for most artists.
I don’t expect to change your mind about Elvis, as you’ve consistently demonstrated that you’re not open to considering any POV that differs from your own.
But isn’t it great that you have so much choice and access to different styles of music these days that you don’t have to listen to Elvis if you don’t want to?
That’s the point here: rock hasn’t died, but thanks to changing technology, it might seem that way.
1. Terrestrial radio is dead. In the 1970s, FM rock radio led the way in introducing new music. DJs played whatever they wanted from deep album cuts to music from unknown artists. That ended in the 1980s when radio formats changed and FM stations stopped playing new music.
2. CDs and every other physical medium of music are dead. (And don’t tell me that vinyl is making a comeback. Vinyl sales are the tiniest fraction of what they once were.) Therefore music sales charts are now meaningless.
3. The internet has democratized music: who makes it, how it’s distributed, our access to it. Yeah, I know the technology is still owned by a privileged few and the royalty payment structure sucks, but any musician with a computer can record music in their home, post to any one of dozens of streaming or download services, and promote it online. The choice we have in the music we listen to is like never before. There is still a ton of great rock music being made, but there’s an equal amount of every other genre, most of which I can’t even name.
The streaming services have introduced me to genres and artists I never would have discovered on the heavily formatted FM radio (or music TV) of the 1980s-2000s. I’m listening to more variety and more interesting music now than I ever did in the past. The technology makes it easy for me to only hear genres I know I’ll like (a lot of which is rock) and automatically skip all the other stuff.
I’d much rather have all this access to new music and new artists than to be stuck listening to Hotel California, Bohemian Rhapsody or Stairway to Heaven yet again on FM Classic Rock Radio.
