Core Blog Post #2: Visual Iconography: The King of Rock 'N' Roll & The King of Pop

“Today we talk about going to ‘see’ Sting or Prince or Madonna, which tells us a lot about how profoundly visualized contemporary popular music has become.” - Erika Doss

The staying power of Elvis Presley’s image in contemporary American culture absolutely astonishes me. For a musician that has died over thirty-five years ago, the “King of Rock ‘N’ Roll” enjoys a healthy amount of record sales, merchandising, and fanfare in the twenty-first century. Chapter One of Erika Doss’ book, Elvis Culture, attributes Elvis’ pseudo-immortality to how powerful his visual presence was when he debuted on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1956. Sure he had a pretty good singing voice, but it was his good looks, charming eyes, and sexy swinging hips that made Elvis memorable.

Memory is a fickle concept in the modern age. Today we are bombarded with media images from a vast multitude of conflicting sources from movies on our smartphones to the vast memory servos of the Internet. It can become increasingly difficult for Americans to discern reality from fiction when visual media is so prevalent in our lives. For example, reading about Elvis made me realize that I have opinions and thoughts about Elvis although I am not at all familiar with any of his work. How can someone born in 1993 I have an opinion about a celebrity that has long faded?

Well, the answer is that Elvis hasn’t faded, at least not in media culture. This is the point Doss attempts to make. I’ve heard Elvis songs in passing, seen stand-up comedians make references to the musical icon, and certainly have picked up a souvenir magnet or two plastered with Elvis’ image. Because I’ve only experienced Elvis posthumously (and somewhat lamely), his image doesn’t mean much to me except as a cautionary tale. The one Elvis image that sticks in my mind is the late 70s Elvis -- overweight, addicted to drugs, and fading into obscurity. However, as Sweeney points out in “King of White Trash Culture”, even the most lurid images of Elvis can be positively interpreted by his fans. Fat Elvis to some might represent a point of weaknesses in the singer’s life, while others might interpret his insolent flab as an attack on body image norms.

Because of the fluidity of Elvis’ image, I realize that stars use visual iconography as pre-packaged meanings for their fans to digest -- despite the conflict of reality. For example, when late 70s Fat Elvis swings his hips, his fans remember and “see” the young, spry, sexually-charged Ed Sullivan Elvis instead. It’s as if celebrities can use iconography to return to high points in their career, recalling even the fan emotion and fervor along with them.

 

For example, compare the iconography of the moonwalk from these two Michael Jackson performances -- the first in 1983 and the second in 1995. When the Michael Jackson debuted the moonwalk in 1983, fans went crazy over his stylish movements and young, sexual energy in much the same way fans went crazy for Elvis. Then, flash forward to 1995 for his MTV Music Video Awards performance with Slash*. This older Michael Jackson has created much controversy over plastic-surgery-gone-overboard (with some allegations that we was attempting to change his race from black to white) and accusations of child sex abuse. However, fans cheer just the same when he starts moonwalking to “Billie Jean”. Everything about the 1995 MTV performance -- Jackson’s costume, the performance staging, the placing of the audience, camera angles, dance moves etc. -- is designed to harken back to a better time in the singer’s career when he was less controversial and more appealing.

The fan excitement shown in the MTV performance shows how the iconography of the moonwalk completely masks the reality of Michael Jackson himself. Fans don’t see “Whacko Jacko”; they see the smooth criminal they fell in love with in 1983.

*Slash too has an iconic pose in which he holds his guitar vertically and plays with his thumb and index finger. It's interesting to see that Slash relies on visual iconography as well evenhough he is a musician that does not dance.