Elvis and Tina:
How Rock Transforms Gender

by Tim Riley


IF YOU BELIEVE SOME people, the second half of the twentieth century suffered from a dearth of heroes. From statesmen (JFK, Bill Clinton) to sports stars (Joe DiMaggio, O.J. Simpson, Daryl Strawberry) to warriors (the entire military-industrial elite responsible for the Vietnam debacle), disillusion has stalked us everywhere. Young men, in particular, have supposedly been forced to struggle into manhood without any positive role models to show them the way. IRON JOHN, by Robert Bly, and STIFFED, by Susan Faludi, both best-sellers, were built around this idea.

This observation mystifies me. What about rock'n'roll? What about rock's role models? Vast numbers of both men and women born after 1950 learned much of what they know about how to be young, how to seek and earn love, and how to struggle toward adulthood from the popular music they listened to. When a figure as compelling as Ronnie Spector of the Ronettes sang "Be My Baby" in 1963, it expressed the power and sweetness of female desire without shame or false coyness. Women rockers such as Tina Turner and Chrissie Hynde made young women feel that sex was not just for "bad girls," and that at its best sexiness in a woman could express both strength and softness. When a band as potent as the Who made adolescent issues roar, it said to younger men, "We've been there, we know what you're feeling, we're with you." Later, when Bruce Springsteen sang "One Step Up," the song told both men and women, "Marriage is a fragile thing. Protect it."

(to be continued...in print...stay tuned to this page for details...)

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