How Did Elvis Influenced American Culture

After the Great Depression and WWII, people turned to music for joy. A simplistic style of happy, feel-good music that was innocent and meant to be non-offending to it’s listeners. People were not expressing their true feelings and they had to fit a ‘role’ in American society. By the time the baby boomer generation was growing up, they had different experiences in their lives and had different ideals than their parents in the Great Generation. They expressed themselves through Rock and Roll. Elvis was a major icon for this type of music. He was loved by his adoring fans, mainly teenage girls. Although, he appeared vulgar and unappealing to the parents of said fans because of the way he moved his hips. Another group of people expressing themselves, were the Hippies.
They experimented with drugs and casual sex leading to STD’s and a lacking work ethic. The Hippies rebelled against the Vietnam war. They lived in Communal living which scared the U.S. government since this was during the time of the Cold War with Russia. They did not like the idea of their people starting to imitate the lifestyles of the Russians, their enemies. They helped Americans come to a point of expressing themselves although the things they did were not good and something we can learn from. Although the what the hippies did when they were rebelling was not ideal they were rebelling against a something that was worthwhile. Both groups of people were rebelling against conformity which was a good thing for America to get past and for Americans to start expressing