Introduction

The Introduction explores the book’s subtitle and Elvis Presley’s position in the disputed territories of American youth culture in the 1950s, and introduces Elvis’s commodification as a star through ‘enfreakment’. It argues that rock and roll in 1950s America was built on disputed territories, and places King Creole in the context of the declining importance of rock and roll as a cultural force, the diminishing potency of the moral panic that surrounded rock and roll, and the usurpation of rock and roll stars by clean teen idols on cinema screens. Having set the context for the book, the Introduction concludes with outlines of each of the book’s subsequent chapters.