The Scoop: Can Elvis be made young?
I wouldn’t want to be the person responsible for rejuvenating Elvis’ image.
That’s the task the Elvis industry has set out to conquer in the face of a diminishing fan base. Elvis merchandise – which has sailed briskly along for years – now finds itself cruising in the slow lane.
There’s only so many times music executives can re-master and re-market the same old songs. And most Elvis fans have accumulated a fairly stocked collection, complete with a velvet picture, by now.
My personal Elvis collection consists of one greatest hits cassette tape I can’t currently locate and that’s more than enough to satisfy my Elvis needs. If I ever do find the tape, my great aspiration is to fetch 25 cents for it at a yard sale.
That said, I don’t envy the work which lies ahead for Joe Dimuro, one of the executives at RCA, which is Elvis’ record label.
Said Dimuro, “It’s about taking a property and figuring out how do we make him hip and young again.”
Good luck.
I admire Dimuro’s optimism, but I’ve found a few basic problems with his plan:
• Elvis is dead.
• He’s been dead for 25 years.
• And Elvis has likely lost most of his sex appeal now that his body is decomposed.
The marketing executives who can make Elvis “hip and young again” would rank right up there with the guys who figured out people will pay $1 for bottled water. For all the folks banging their heads thinking about a get-rich-quick scheme, the $1-for-water idea has to be the greatest of all time.
As for the Elvis industry, I give it long odds for success. I’m not suggesting Graceland is on the brink of bankruptcy, but I don’t see today’s teen-agers flocking to Elvis, or his torso gyrations, the way teens did some three decades ago.
Simply put, Elvis isn’t as exciting as he once was. Generally speaking, people are seldom as fascinating once they’re dead.
Today’s musicians make videos which border on pornographic. Some dance around wearing not much more than a handkerchief.
By today’s standards, Elvis’ act is tame and stale (that’s highlighted by the fact he’s no longer performing it). I say the Elvis industry has milked his corpse for about all it’s worth. For a quarter of a century, there have been many people who have made much money from Elvis-related merchandise. His blue suede shoes may never be filled.
An average of 650,000 people visit Graceland each year. And I imagine thousands of Elvis’ albums are still sold every month. But I figure it’s only a matter of time before the stream of sales turns to a trickle and then the trickle dries up almost completely.
The fundamental problem with reinventing Elvis is Elvis is dead. He can’t pull an Al Gore and wear cowboy boots one day and a three-piece suit the next. He can’t grow a beard and teach college courses to show he’s really an all right guy.
The chance of Elvis developing a new – and young – fan base is virtually obsolete. His merchandise may continue to sell for another decade or so, but after that it will probably only be a hot commodity in nursing homes.
I’m OK with Elvis’ diminishing popularity and I think it’s a safe bet to say it doesn’t bother him much either. Even the most diehard Elvis fans have got to admit The King just isn’t as lively as he used to be. It’s going to take more than a beard and cowboy boots to cure his image problems.
(James Clark is editor of the Standard. He can be reached at 473-2191 or by e-mail at standard@blomand.net.)