Okay. Let's Settle This Once & For All Times!!!

[Saccopoo]

Originally Posted by Reaper16

Elvis invented nothing, assholes. He was an effective swindler of black music, though.

Jesus...don't make me go back to the Neanderthal banging on a log to find who invented music, or who swindled or pillaged from who. Music is one of a few "cultural universals." Nobody invented it. However, Elvis took/borrowed/implemented from a myriad of styles to redefine what the conceptualizations were of "music" and was the established pioneer of what we now call "rock 'n roll." Prior to Elvis, there was gospel, blues, C & W, swing, big band, crooner, jazz and a vast number of regional influences. He took a bit from each and put something together that had never been heard before. All of a sudden, the world heard the blues, gospel, jazz, C & W all rolled into one - rock 'n roll. And it opened up the world to these sub-genres of rock and allowed these to influence the music of people across the globe.

Do I prefer Big Momma Thorton's Hound Dog over Elvis' version? Yep. But if it wasn't for Elvis, I'd have no idea who Thorton was, and that could be applied to a number of other artists as well.

No, I disagree. Rock'nRoll was invented by Elvis. Not intentionally, but he brought together the styles of guys like Muddy Waters (greatest blues artist ever), the progression of swing bop from Bill Haley, the boogie woogie of Fats Domino, the vocalizations and lyrics of Hank Williams, the crooning of Frank Sinatra, the punch of Ike Turner, the drive of the boom-chaka-boom Johnny Cash rock-a-billy, and utilized the genius of people like Les Paul and his guitar and studio innovations and combined them all with a soulful voice, good looks and infectious charisma to bring it all together in a package that people in a wide ranging demographic (globally) found acceptable. He was also helped by record companies switching to 45 rpms, as well as the increased popularity of musical radio pushing the "black sound" by such people as Alan Freed.

However, look at the music scene prior to 1954, and then from 1954 and thereafter. It was Elvis that changed the entire face of music. Yes, the Beatles pushed the envelope, sonically, creatively, harmonically, and were, barely arguably, the greatest musical artists of their day.

But to quote John Lennon: "Before Elvis, there was nothing."

Edit: And this is coming from a person (me) who currently has 67 Beatles songs on my iPod and 1 Elvis song.