Summary of “faking It: The Quest for Authenticity in Popular Music”
Summary of “Faking It: The Quest for Authenticity in Popular Music”
In Hugh Barker and Yuval Taylor’s chapter, “The Art an Artifice of Elvis Presley” from “Faking it: The Quest for Authenticity in popular music”, they explore how Elvis Presley acted authentic in order to appeal to the masses. How he “faked it” it in order to make it to the top.
In the introduction to the chapter, Taylor and Barker explain how the audience is aware of how authentic something sounds. Also, there are many aspects of authenticity when it is being used to describe music. It can be representational, cultural, or personal authenticity. They also suggest that authenticity is something that can never be achieved, that it is merely a “quest.” And how this quest has caused entire genres to be labeled as “inauthentic,” and has even redefined authenticity for certain genres, as if being real isn’t real enough, but you have to fake it, to be real. The search for authenticity has triggered changes in popular music, with a change from Country to Rock & Roll, caused by Elvis Presley and him striving to be authentic enough to please the RCA, and become another Dean Martin which, is what Taylor and Barker’s chapter is all about.
Barker and Taylor describe the start of Elvis’s career with a song that was climbing to the top of the charts which got him into the RCA studio. From there he was inspired by a story of a suicide to write the song “Heartbreak Hotel” which the RCA disapproved of. Elvis knew what his audience wanted, which was to be a rebel, and he continued with this while being original and strange and his voice evolved through several of his songs.
They go on to describe the different effects he uses in his voice, like a sort of hiccup similar to Hank Williams, and exploding with energy. These mannerisms also influenced other singers to sing in a similar way, and several Rockabilly singers started coming from nowhere. Elvis had reinvented Rock and Roll and it was because he didn’t act like himself. He didn’t make his music personal and accurate. He made it reflect the multiple characters which appealed to people the most, like the rebel, or country boy. The words don’t even mean anything to him. They said Elvis considered the words meant “less than nothing.” All he cared about were the beat and his voice, and with the