Why Elvis’ posthumous popularity is declining
Twenty, perhaps even 10 years ago, you’d be hard-pressed to find a young person who hadn’t heard the music of Elvis Presley. Today, however, new statistics reveal a staggering 29 per cent of 18- to 24-year-olds have never listened to an Elvis song.
The poll of over 2,000 UK adults by YouGov also found that no one in this age group listened to the King daily, and only eight per cent listened monthly. When asked about their opinions of other musicians, around twice as many said they like the Beatles (23 per cent) and David Bowie (25 per cent) “a lot”, compared to just 12 per cent of Elvis fans.
Despite this, Elvis maintains a strong level of popularity among older generations – his songs have been played a whopping 382 million times on Spotify alone. However, when you compare this number to Bowie and Michael Jackson (whose plays exceed 600 million) and the Beatles’ incredible 1.3 billion, it becomes less impressive. In addition, the value of the late star’s rare merchandise has fallen dramatically.
University of Leeds Professor of Music David Hesmondhalgh believes his declining popularity is due to his increasingly common status as a “novelty act”. “If you ask a small child about Elvis, the fact he died on a toilet through overeating or wore a silly suit is all that registers,” he explains to The Guardian. “The music has become far less important than the caricature. His image has been cheapened.”
Tell us in the comments below, why do you think fewer young people are listening to the King’s music?