Love me tender, love me sweet…

How has this one man impacted the music and world?

I thought I would explore this some and was surprised by all of the information I found, beginning first by reading newspaper articles about Elvis Week and then browsing a few different Elvis Web sites.

- Did you know that there are still over 500 active official Elvis Presley fan clubs in the United States and 45 other countries? Turkey is one of them!

I was fascinated with the fan letters and comments I came across. There seemed to be a common thread. On most of the sites the most frequent comment or one very similar was to this effect:

“I can’t describe how I feel about him because I’ve loved him since I was a teenager,” said Katie in Kentucky. “When I would hear him sing, I’d go into like a trance and nothing else around me mattered.”

Fans from around the world were either in love with him or found him a way to escape from reality. Thirty years later fans are still all shook up by the world’s first rock ‘n’ roll star. Many who may not care for Elvis would not be aware of the valuable contributions that have come out of these fan clubs.

 - Did you know that fan clubs in countries like Australia <http://www.elvis.com.au>, Norway, and Turkey have remained active and have reportedly contributed more than $1.4 million to charity over the last decade?

Elvis was not only popular in America in the 1950s when he fist came on the scene, he became global quickly. In this day and age it is much easier to become internationally famous -- but back then? Satellite and cable TV, internet, CDs, mp3s, iPods, and the like did not exist. After all, digital audio began in the Netherlands in 1970 and the first compact disc player went on the market in the early 1980s.

I think back in the 1950s Turkey was probably influenced by Elvis through NATO and Voice of America in Turkey. The 1950s in Turkey were interesting years. As an anthropologist, I think it would be fun to explore this a little more. If you have some comments on this I would like to hear from you. The question is:

- How was Turkey influenced by Elvis in the 1950s?

For example, let’s just think of an artist during the 2000s -- Tarkan. Some say this Turkish pop musician has the looks and the rhythm. Was he ever influenced by Elvis’ music? When he released his fourth album, “Karma,” it seemed to blare from every car radio and restaurant in the nation. Tarkan was seen on every billboard selling anything from Pepsi to Nokia phones, and he was on every celebrity magazine cover. For an American analogy think of Elvis circa 1957, the last time an entire country was besotted with -- or, among tradition-bound parents, outraged by -- a single performer.

Nobody can dispute that Elvis was an international man of discography. Tabulating record sales is a tricky business, but according to the Recording Industry Association of America <http://www.riaa.org>, nobody has come close to replacing Presley as the top-selling artist of all time. Still some debates have been hot on the internet as people argue over who has sold the most records. Has it been Whitney, Madonna, Streisand or Elvis?

- Did you know that in 1992 the Presley estate was awarded a plaque retroactively recognizing that of his 1 billion record units sold to date, over 400 million were bought outside of the U.S?

As Andy in England on one of the websites pointed out in his comment, “It is hard to measure these days because technology has changed so much. The ways to acquire and listen to music has changed drastically.”

Globally we have access to music more easily than ever before

One thing is for sure: Now, with mp3 and iPods, even the CD may be seeing the end of it days, as the vinyl disc did a generation ago. But Elvis’ music will continue to impact the world and individual’s lives. It seems Elvis is rocking and rolling his way through a third generation of fans.

What kind of effect can it have on Turkey? Hopefully we will show more love…