The King as Proletarian: Thinking about Elvis Presley as a Worker

ABSTRACT

What are the implications of conceiving of musicians as first and foremost being particular forms of workers? This article argues that such an approach leads to a greater understanding of musical lives and soon necessitates a consideration of the industries within which musicians seek to work. In order to justify such claims the article looks at the working life of one of the most famous popular musicians of all—Elvis Presley, someone often referred to as the “King of Rock ’n’ Roll.” It argues that an examination of Elvis Presley’s working life reveals that rather than being that of a king it was that of a proletarian.

KEYWORDS:

• Musicians
• music industries
• Elvis Presley
• musicians as workers
• musical work

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. See Popular Music and Society, vol. 40, no., 2017, and Musicultures, vol. 40, no. 1, 2014.

2. Also see, for example, the divergent accounts of Presley’s visit to Richard Nixon in Brown and Boeske (353–56) and Guralnick (Careless 415–23).

3. For more on Presley’s membership in various unions see the discussion following Daryl.

4. This quotation is attributable to Leonard Bernstein, who claimed Presley was “the greatest cultural force in the 20^th Century” (qtd. in Meacham).