Elvis Presley's Poor Acting Skills in Film

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Recommended: Mass media influence on pop culture

Elvis Presley's Poor Talents Paying Bills

Elvis Presley, the King of Rock and Roll, is an American Pop Culture Icon who influenced his audience with his commanding voice and dazzling sex appeal. In the 1950's, Elvis devoted his career to singing and making music. In the sixties, however, he dedicated his time towards making movies and appearing in motion pictures. As many critics agree, Elvis had poor acting skills in his films, generally showing apathy and/or dull facial expressions. Yet, through entertainment media, Elvis was able to inspire a generation of youth to "take action" in American society from his "poor actions". Moreover, film in the age of mass media neutralized Elvis' "bad acting" by redirecting the audience's attention towards his dynamic singing and sexual physique, heavily appealing to the social trends of the 1960's decade.

In the decade of the 60's, Elvis starred in over 34 motion pictures, averaging more than 3 films released per year. In these films, Elvis generally had the lead role, allowing the center of attention to fall on his shoulders. Unfortunately, Elvis had poor acting skills, usually displaying bland facial expressions or lethargy. According to the New Yorker magazine, Elvis' acting talents were thin: "Thicklipped, droopy-eyed and indefatigably sullen, Mr. Presley, whose talents are meager but whose earnings are gross" (Raaphorst). Thankfully, Elvis had extraordinary singing talents to make up for his poor acting skills. Knowing his strengths, Elvis and his producers began placing songs into his movies to gain a greater acceptance from his audience: "Statistically, he holds records for the most Top Forty hits (107), the most Top Ten hits (38), the most consecutive #1 hits (10) and the most w...

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...ire a youth generation to take action in American society. By redirecting his movie audience's attention away from his common acting skills, Elvis was able to successfully increase his popularity from his dramatic singing roles, his sexual attractiveness and his rebellious attitude. Truly, mass media neutralized Elvis' "poor" acting skills and transformed them into a "rich" lifestyle, enabling Elvis Presley to still live large today in the entertainment capital of the world--Las Vegas, Nevada.

Works Cited

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum. Cleveland, Ohio. 01 November 1999. http://www.rockhall.com/induct/preselvi.html.

Yahoo!: Geocities. TCB Ring, Elvis in Hollywood. 31 October 1999. http://www.geocities.com/~arpt/hollywood/nsindex.html.

Yahoo!: Geocities. TCB Ring, Elvis in Hollywood. 31 October 1999. http://www.geocities.com/~arpt/hollywood/nsindex.html.

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