25 years after his Elvis can still generate front page stories. It's nice to see young kids in their 30's enjoying his music. In today's Washington Post:
washingtonpost.com
An Old Hound Dog's New Tricks
Some Younger Fans Get All Shook Up Over Elvis
By Helen Rumbelow
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 16, 2002; Page A01
MEMPHIS, Aug. 15 -- Lenny Rogers has for decades dyed his hair a shiny black, drooping down his forehead in a persistent drizzle, to help him look more like his idol Elvis Presley. These days, he said, it also helps to cover up the wisps of gray appearing in his sideburns.
"It's strange to think that, had he lived, he would now be 67," said Rogers, 51, strutting with the confidence of a 10-time Graceland veteran through the crowds on Elvis Presley Boulevard. "No one knows what he would have looked like old, so we keep trying to look like him young."
The Los Angeles fan is one of an estimated 70,000 who have made the pilgrimage to Memphis to mark today's date -- a quarter of a century since the King of Rock 'n' Roll died.
It is, said the publicist for the anniversary, "the biggest event in Elvis's posthumous career" since the opening of Graceland, and has exceeded the 20th-anniversary crowd numbers by 10,000.
For many, it is a reunion. Each year they return, their pantsuits cut a little roomier, their karate kicks creakier, their steps a little less nimble off the Graceland tour bus.
So, although last night's candlelit procession past Elvis's grave was a time for mourning, Elvis Week prompts serious reflection on whether the singer's phenomenal appeal could finally be getting old.
The graying of Elvis fans is a prospect that has troubled Joe DiMuro, senior vice president of strategic marketing at Elvis's record label, RCA Records/BMG. Research shows most people buying the music are older than 40. Sales steadily decline in step with the numbers of those with a living memory of the man.
"It is incumbent upon us to re-generationalize him," DiMuro said. "We have to find those nuances, be it in his performance or uality, which transcend generations. It is sign of the classic, a composer like Mozart or a beverage like Coca-Cola, that they stand the test of time."
The campaign to rebrand Elvis for a younger audience began last year, when the record company decided to cut the number of Elvis compilations available, reducing the number of about 150 titles in circulation by about two-thirds. The move was designed to create a "hunger" for the anthology of Elvis No. 1 hits due out next month.
Then came the release of Disney's animated "Lilo & Stitch," which was licensed to use eight Elvis songs to tell the story of a little whose only friends are Elvis records. The movie has already grossed more than $100 million.
The company also took what was for them a radical step: It allowed a remix of Elvis. The single, "A Little Less Conversation," with pumped-up drums and bass, shot to No. 1 in 24 countries after being used in a Nike commercial for the World Cup. The 1.6 million who bought the song -- mainly 21- to 29-year-olds -- haven't looked so young since, well, Elvis was young.
But four young college students from Maryland who visited this week, conspicuous in the long Graceland line of older women twinkling with Elvis jewelry and themed shirts, didn't feel very "re-generationalized." None of them have ever bought any Elvis music.
"We just wanted to see what all the fuss was about," said David Black, 19. "It's more like a historical thing for us, trying to understand our own culture."
For them, Elvis triggers associations of Austin Powers, Bill Clinton or squabbles between their parents because their mom thought he was "hot."
Others on the tour, in common with many of the 600,000 who visit Graceland every year, longest at the grave site, covered in wreaths, prayers and teddy bears costumed to look like Elvis. But these young men have a different moment of awe, in front of Elvis's bed, in the shape of a shell and covered in thick white fur.
"An eight-track built into the bed," Alex Asher, 20, murmurs to the others. "Cool."
In the trophy room, Nathan Tracy, 59, of Los Angeles peers at the gold record for "Don't Be Cruel."
"That's the first record I ever bought," he tells his son Matt, 20, who rolls his eyes.
Of the pair, it is actually Matt who is the Elvis fan -- he dragged his reluctant father here on their way to his college. Matt got into Elvis a year ago through the Internet music site Napster. But the two men still do not understand each other's tastes.
"I like fat Elvis," said Matt. "He was the only person who could be a slob and wear those silly outfits and still be cool."
His father still can't quite believe that his son is a fan of a singer he lost interest in four decades ago.
"I remember him very clearly coming down the stairs and saying, 'Dad, do you have any Elvis stuff?' In my day, it was s who were into Elvis, not boys."
Matt agrees: "Now it's changed: s might think he was cute when he was young, but it is the boys who are discovering his music."
Elvis earned an estimated $37 million last year, much of it going to his daughter, Lisa Marie, who owns his estate, Elvis Presley Enterprises. It helps that Lisa Marie still makes headlines, said Jack Soden, chief executive of EPE, in his office, a little oasis of calm overlooking the mounting frenzy on Elvis Presley Boulevard. Lisa Marie married the actor Nicolas Cage last weekend and is due to appear with her mother, Priscilla Presley, at the Elvis revival concert in Memphis tonight.
Even so, the last year was tough for EPE, which laid off 15 percent of Graceland staff, attributing the cuts to the effects of Sept. 11. Soden said he is encouraged by research that shows the average age of a Graceland visitor has dropped from 42 to 33 in the last decade, and he said he does not believe this is simply the effect of fans bringing their children.
In a meeting room at the Peabody Hotel, a line of almost exclusively middle-aged, white fans snakes around the walls to get autographs from a group of five people who claim a personal connection to Elvis. One figure sits alone in the center of the room: Allyssa Wilger, 13, of Milwaukee. This is her eighth Elvis Week, courtesy of her dad, Timothy, 39, standing in line. Some other parents have already enrolled their children in a fan club called "Young Fans of Elvis," catering to those from birth to 16.
"I don't even remember the first time I came," Allyssa said. "It's a lot of the same stuff every year. We are even going to two more of these signings this week. They have different people, but it's really all the same."
At school, most of her friends like rap music (for example, Eminem's new song "Without Me," with the lyrics: "Kids feeling rebellious/Embarrassed their parents still listen to Elvis/They start to feel like prisoners, helpless."). When she gets to decide where she goes on vacation, she is not sure she will return.
At one of the week's events, a seminar asking, "Is Elvis History?" a young woman confessed to feeling isolated as a young Elvis fan. She said she tries to persuade her friends by playing them his earliest recordings.
For Greil Marcus, the music critic, the young woman has identified a genuine problem: The cult of Elvis, the religious fervor inspired by Graceland, may prevent young people from coming to the music afresh.
"Younger Elvis fans, those that really listen to the music, are uncommon, they're loners," Marcus said. "Elvis has become a figure of tremendous unreality, unless you listen to the music and get that sense of yearning and freedom."
Some events of Elvis Week are designed to appeal more to the younger generation. Elvis's last public appearance, a week before he died, was at the 90-year-old Libertyland Amusement Park, where he rode the Zippin Pippin roller coaster so many times he lost the rhinestone buckle off his blue jumpsuit.
This week the park opened late at night for Elvis fans, proudly advertising the name of their brand-new ride to appeal to the younger crowd. But while people lined up for the historic Zippin Pippin, no one wanted to try out Rebellion. |
