Pioneers of rock n roll. Yes, you can talk about The Beatles.

Madmarsha said
Is it stealing? Is it homage? Is it derivative?

Definitely not a derivative when it was an uncredited copy.

The Beatles paid homage and created derivatives based on a sound they embraced. They became pioneers of a truly new sound that has shaped modern music more than anyone. Elvis just isn't in that category. His lasting "contributions" to music outside of popularism were not his, but I give him full credit for the ways he shaped the music industry (massive teenage audience frenzies, selling records, using TV/film to expand his audience).

This Grammy article of course paints him in a good light, but truly they even acknowledge that most of his Rock contributions are on the popularity/rock star nature and not musicality.

https://www.grammy.com/news/elvis-p...-roll-innovator-list-las-vegas-love-me-tender

Sun Wukong said
I'm not a huge fan of Elvis as a person or even really an artist, but it's pretty wild to see people in this thread discounting the absolutely singular impact he had on the rock genre all because they can't get over their "white people bad!" circlejerk.

Also: The idea of "stealing" musical genres is braindead. If Elvis "stole" it, so did every white person who came after him, including your beloved Beatles and everyone they influenced, so hold them to same standard.

If we're going to dictate that only one race/culture can lay claim to a style of music, it has to apply all the way forking down.

Nah. There's a difference between what the Beatles did and what Elvis did. So no, there's no white people bad conspiracy.

The idea that it's impossible to differentiate between stealing and being influenced by is braindead.