Therefore, it was good opportunity for an Alabama-born white disc-jockey Sam Philips to found his own record company Sun Records in Memphis.

 

In 1950, Phillips started recording performances of amateur musicians such as B.B. King, Junior Parker and Howlin’ Wolf.

 

Then, Phillips would release and sell masters of their performances to the developing Chicago independent label Chess and large record companies, and records were issued by them.

 

Eventually, he launched Sun Records in 1952. 

After Philips discovered Elvis Presley in1954, the label started producing rock ‘n’ roll songs.

 

During its 16 years run, Sun Records produced 226 rock ‘n’ roll and blues singles.

 

These records include performances of legendary non-black musicians such as Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash.

Among his achievements, Elvis Presley is known for one of his greatest discoveries.

Presley had a capacity to sing different genres of music such as the blues, gospel, country, and ballad.

His dance that he performed on shows were distinctly different than that of Caucasian people.

 

According to Vardaman, Presley’s style of dance which shaking lower back was introduced from Africa.

 

On the other hand, in Western dance, a dancer usually put their arm on another’s waist.

Naturally, his way of dancing was initially disliked by white people.

Like this, he absorbed African-American music and dance.

His early life clarifies the reason for this.

He was born on January 8, 1935, in Tupelo Mississippi during the height of the Great Depression.

 

At that time, southern agriculture was mechanizing and many sharecroppers including white farmers lost their job.

However, many of jobs which they can find in the cities were low-paid.