We’re Going to Graceland: Globalization and the Reimagining of Memphis

Abstract

Memphis, located on the east bank of the Mississippi River in the far southwestern corner of Tennessee, is often described as the home of the blues and the birthplace of rock and roll. Variations of the music of the Mississippi Delta and the Mid-South, first performed by rural migrants on Beale Street, in juke joints, bars, and Pentecostal churches, then pressed into vinyl, became global popular music through record sales, radio broadcasts, and juke boxes during the 1950s and 1960s. For more than 50 years Memphis music, recorded by Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and Carl Perkins at Sun Studio, followed by Isaac Hayes, Otis Redding, Steve Cropper, and Booker T. Jones at Stax Records, as well as Beale Street blues artists such as B. B. King, has transfixed global listeners and transformed popular culture (Rushing, 2009).