Elvis’ Pelvis and America’s Changing Cultural Taboo

Join Vinyl Bay 777 in looking at how culture has changed over the years through the lens of music performance.

As Bob Dylan said, “the times, they are a-changin’.” Things that people once saw as taboo have now become a regular part of our society.

Never has this been more evident than in the way music and performance has progressed over the last 70 years. From the way singers tackle subjects like sex and drugs to the way an artist moves, dances and dresses on stage, it is the perfect lens through which to see just how much society has changed.

Take Amy Winehouse’s breakthrough album, ‘Back to Black,’ for instance, which celebrates its 10^th anniversary today. Through her music, she frankly discusses her alcoholism in language that is brutal and up-front. Even though artists in the 1960s had the same issues, it was highly unlikely that they would be writing such lyrics. Like Kenneth Partridge said in an October 27^th article on Billboard, “Social mores were such that you couldn’t sing about these things, or the nitty-gritty of romantic relationships, in 1965. But had it been a more permissive era, phrases like “likkle carpet burns” -- a Winehouse gem from “You Know I’m No Good” -- might have found their way into some of those classic Supremes breakup jams.”

Partridge goes on to name another taboo that Winehouse breaks, being a women in the music industry writing her own songs. That doesn’t seem like it should be a thing. Women write their own songs all the time nowadays. But go back 50 years and you had male’s running the music industry. The thought of a woman being a major player in that realm was laughable. Sure there were some, like Carole King, one of the most successful songwriters of the last 50 years, but they were few and far between. And even King didn’t have solo success with her own music until the 1970s.

Breaking taboos in music doesn’t only have to do with songwriting, but performance as well. When Elvis came out on stage in 1957, all he had to do was shake his hips (something he was once asked by police at a show in California not to do) and he was considered indecent. Flash forward to the 1980s and 90s when you had boy bands and female singers gyrating all over the place because, quite frankly, sex sells. We don’t bat an eye to this anymore. It’s a part of our culture now.

The same thing goes for on-stage fashion choices. Before the 1960s, ladies wearing pants was unheard of because it was “unladylike.” Before that it was even unladylike for a woman to wear a dress that showed off her ankles. Now, pants keep getting shorter and shorter. Not only young pop singers, but artists like Madonna, who broke many a mold with her music and art, as well, perform in outfits that leave little to the imagination.

As time goes on, culture begins to change. Things that were once taboo, like drugs and sex in song lyrics and risqué outfits and dance moves, have become part of the norm. This isn’t a bad thing, though. Culture should evolve and change. It’s how you grow as a society. Music is a great window into the changes that are occurring in our society and where we are heading because it is part of the media that we consume every day. It is a reflection of us and who we are.

See how music has changed over the years by coming down to Vinyl Bay 777 or shopping online at vinylbay777.com and browsing our selection of thousands of titles on vinyl, CD, and cassette. Find music from all the artists mentioned and more, spanning many decades of music and history.