| Catalytic
Acceleration to Greatness / Elvis
Where any catalytic
acceleration leaves the person in terms of potential for further development
depends on where the person ends up at the end of it. In Mozart's case
the catalytic acceleration of his ‘Euro tour’ simply left
the "world-famous boy" stuck back in Salzburg, just another
"socially disdained" musician - soon too old to be a prodigy,
and still way too young and unconnected to gain a foothold elsewhere.
Yet it is precisely such accelerations which are essential to attaining
greatness. Only in contrast to Mozart's acceleration to a position which
could only be stepping stone (ie, internationally famous musical prodigy),
accelerations to greatness must also include alignment/ match of the person/
image with powerful institutional forces capable of influencing the public
in the midst of sizable societal/ cultural change. In short this acceleration
requires a fit across all four worlds: the personal, interpersonal, institutional,
and societal.
This process is perhaps most clearly seen in the rapid acceleration of
Elvis Presley from the Southern country & western circuit to becoming
the first mega star of Rock ‘n Roll.
By the early 1950's evidence of major cultural change was starting to
show up from LA to Houston to Cincinnati, from Chicago to Newark to New
York. It was starting to show up in all those cities that took the influx
of 1& 1/4 million Negroes who left the South for the expanding war
industries of North and West in 1940-50 decade - cities that now had their
own small labels like Speciality and King and Chess, small labels that
were producing 'race records' for the growing "Negro market".
It was this evidence that “amazed” the “quality music"
disc jockey, Alan Freed, on his visit to Leo Mintz' record store in downtown
Cleveland early in '51 - the evidence he saw in the “excited”
white teenagers... continues in Arrival
...It was
the same evidence which would soon be "squeaking itself silly over
this fellow in an orange coat and sideburns", which would put "dollar
marks" in Colonel Parker's eyes the first time he saw it in "thundering"
across the stage after Elvis.
It was the same evidence that the parents of those white teenagers saw
- parents who spent their own teen years growing up in the Great Depression
- evidence that their children were listening to "unspeakably vulgar",
"obscene junk", or worst yet, that they were becoming lovers
of - as Ira Louvin put it a wee bit more forcefully to Elvis back stage
one night in North Carolina - ... continues
in Arrival
...In short, it was evidence of a massive shift in musical taste, a shift
reflecting an equally massive underlying societal change - "the emergence
since the Second World War of a new phenomenon: the adolescent or youth
culture".
As for the
equally critical need for the person/ image to fit/ match with the interests
of powerful institutional forces capable of influencing the public in
the midst of such a sizable societal/ cultural change, consider the following
sequence of events:
*Prior to November
of 1955, despite his records selling like hotcakes from New Orleans to
Memphis, to Little Rock and Shreveport and Dallas, and "all over
West Texas", the high point of Elvis' career so far was signing up
as a 'regular' on the Louisiana Hayride and touring with the likes of
Hank Snow, Faron Young, and the Louvin Brothers.
*Then on November 21st that essential institutional power came into play.
Sam Phillips signed over Elvis (and his Sun recordings) to Colonel Parker
and his RCA backers for "highest contract release price ever paid
for a country-western recording artist" -- a deal which, in Phillips'
own words, would give Elvis a chance to enter "the largest organization
of its kind in the world, so his talents can be given the fullest opportunity"…
continues
in Arrival
… Within two months "Heartbreak Hotel" was set to top
all 3 charts (pop, country, and R&B), RCA had its first million dollar
album, and Elvis out on the West Coast singing "Blue Suede Shoes"
just the same way he always did -- ... continues in Arrival
... Only this performance wasn't for screaming teens at Overton Park or
the Gator Bowl. It was for ... continues in Arrival
Massive cultural change just waiting for the likes of an Elvis to come
along and mega institutional backing dying to cash in on the possibilities
-- the perfect match for that catalytic acceleration to greatness. In
less than 5 months Elvis was on his way from 'The Hayride' to Rock 'n
Roll history.
The information and quotes re Elvis above come mostly from Gillett (1984),
and Guralnick (2000).
The concept
of Catalytic Acceleration to Greatness was developed over the course of
researching and writing Arrival. At this point it does not exist
elsewhere in the research literature. In addition to the example of Elvis
Presley presented here, Arrival provides similar analyses of
such accelerations in the lives of Monet, Lincoln, and Madonna.
References cited above re available
in Arrival. see Sources.
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