Updated: March 09, 2025

Presley's rise to national attention in 1956 transformed the field of popular music and had a huge effect on the broader scope of popular culture. As the catalyst for the cultural revolution that was rock and roll, he was central not only to defining it as a musical genre but in making it a touchstone of youth culture and rebellious attitude. With its racially mixed origins repeatedly affirmed by Presley rock and roll occupation of a central position in mainstream American culture facilitated a new acceptance and appreciation of black culture.

In this regard, Little Richard said of Presley, He was an integrator. Elvis was a blessing. They wouldn't let black music through. He opened the door for black music." Al Green reaffirmed that by stating, "He broke the ice for all of us.

President Jimmy Carter remarked on Presley's legacy in 1977: His music and his personality, fusing the styles of white country and black rhythm and blues, permanently changed the face of American popular culture. Presley also heralded the vastly expanded reach of celebrity in the era of mass communication: within a year of his first appearance on American network television, he was regarded as one of the most famous people in the world.

Elvis Impersonators in 2005:

Presley's name, image, and voice are recognized around the world. He has inspired a legion of impersonators. In polls and surveys, he is recognized as one of the most important popular music artists and influential Americans. American composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein said, Elvis Presley is the greatest cultural force in the twentieth century. He introduced the beat to everything and he changed everythingâ€"music, language, clothes." John Lennon said that Nothing really affected me until Elvis. Bob Dylan described the sensation of first hearing Presley as "like busting out of jail.

Presley's Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6777 Hollywood Blvd:

For much of his adult life, Presley, with his rise from poverty to riches and fame, had seemed to epitomize the American Dream. In his final years, and following the revelations about his circumstances after his death, he became a symbol of excess and gluttony. Increasing attention was paid to his appetite for the rich, heavy Southern cooking of his upbringing, foods such as chicken-fried steak and biscuits and gravy. In particular, his love of fried peanut butter, banana, and ( sometimes ) bacon sandwiches, now known as Elvis sandwiches, came to symbolize this characteristic.

Since 1977, there have been numerous alleged sightings of Presley. A long-standing conspiracy theory among some fans is that he faked his death. Adherents cite alleged discrepancies in the death certificate, reports of a wax dummy in his original coffin, and accounts of Presley planning a diversion so he could retire in peace. An unusually large number of fans have domestic shrines devoted to Presley and journey to sites with which he is connected, however faintly. On the anniversary of his death, thousands of people gather outside Graceland for a candlelight ritual. With Elvis, it is not just his music that has survived death, writes Ted Harrison. "He himself has been raised, like a medieval saint, to a figure of cultic status. It is as if he has been canonized by acclamation."

On the 25th Anniversary of Presleys Death, The New York Times Asserted:

All the talentless impersonators and appalling black velvet paintings on display can make him seem little more than a perverse and distant memory. But before Elvis was camp, he was its opposite: a genuine cultural force. ... Elvis breakthroughs are underappreciated because in this rock-and-roll age, his hard-rocking music and sultry style have triumphed so completely.

He was ranked third on Rolling Stones list of greatest artists. Bono wrote in appreciation:

In Elvis, you have the blueprint for rock & roll. The highness the gospel highs. The mud the Delta mud, the blues. Sexual liberation. Controversy. Changing the way people feel about the world. It's all there with Elvis.

Not only Presley's achievements but his failings as well, are seen by some cultural observers as adding to the power of his legacy, as in this description by Greil Marcus:

Elvis Presley is a supreme figure in American life, one whose presence, no matter how banal or predictable, brooks no real comparisons. ... The cultural range of his music has expanded to the point where it includes not only the hits of the day, but also patriotic recitals, pure country gospel, and really dirty blues. ... Elvis has emerged as a great artist, a great rocker, a great purveyor of schlock, a great heart throb, a great bore, a great symbol of potency, a great ham, a great nice person, and, yes, a great American.