He died more than 20 years ago and yet Elvis Presley is as popular in death as he was in life.
In her new book, "Elvis Culture: Fans, Faith and Image," CU-Boulder fine arts Professor Erika Doss examines why Elvis lives on by exploring the multifaceted image of Elvis Presley. "This book is about icons and images and material culture," said Doss.
Doss conducted extensive surveys, spoke with fans, visited their homes, joined Elvis clubs and toured Graceland, Elvis聮 Memphis home. What she discovered was fans with complex and oftentimes contradicting views of Elvis.
"People have different understandings of Elvis," explains Doss. "That's why he has gay fans and straight fans and black fans and white fans and 3 year-old fans and 80 year-old fans. For a lot of people Elvis is very erotic. But for others and his estate, Elvis is a family man. So these images come into conflict."
She also found that Elvis fans are not the fanatics so often portrayed by the media, but caring, giving and intelligent people. "Most of the fans I talked with are very intelligent people who, nevertheless, feel victimized by this rapacious media culture which wants to turn them into fanatics. It was interesting to me to engage in thoughtful conversation with thinking Americans who are very eager to help explain their fascination with Elvis."
According to Doss, among those "thoughtful, thinking Americans" is 乐播传媒 President John Buechner who is "a big Elvis fan."
Since his death, Elvis has risen from pop idol to religious icon. People make pilgrimages to his house in Memphis. They build shrines to him in their homes, covet his pictures, paintings and figurines -- actions suggesting a spiritual figure of importance for many people.
"A lot of fans will say, 'When I talk he listens.' He is a figure that they can talk with and share their inner thoughts with and pray to," said Doss.
"Fans often told me, this is not a God in my life. But the way in which they talked about Elvis was to talk about him in terms of an intercessor, or an intermediary for whatever it was that they wanted. And in that sense he is a Saint. Because Saints are intercessors."
Doss asks in her book: Why Elvis Presley and not John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison or a number of other pop idols who died untimely deaths? Doss believes it's because of Elvis聮 ability to be so many things to so many people; teen rockabilly rebel, B-movie actor, patriotic soldier, father, husband, Las Vegas crooner, drug addict, Saint and sinner -- Elvis is all of them.
"Elvis Culture: Fans, Faith and Image," is published by the University Press of Kansas and should be on sale in local bookstores in early May.