American Politics & Pop Culture

For Elvis Presley and the Beatles, sexuality was an important part of their identities as musicians. Given that their music was often about love (and implicitly, sex), it made commercial sense to cultivate an image which fit. Elvis seemed to face tougher criticism for displaying his sexuality, probably because the timing wasn't quite right. However, when the Beatles came to America the time was right. The death of JFK just two months prior represented an end to age of "innocence" in American life. With it came the ending of innocence for teenage girls. On the eve of the women's rights movement, women and girls were beginning to rebel, albeit in a less political and organized way. Beatlemania was the form in which these girls rebelled. Ehrenrich notes in her articles how at the time the thought of girls 10-14 possessing a sexuality at all was an unthinkable concept at the time, except for Freudians. What Beatlemania did was allow these girls to proclaim and own their sexuality. For perhaps the first time in American culture, men were being explicitly objectified by mass amounts of women. For the Beatles, it made sense to continue to encourage this type of behavior as it was good for business. For an artist such as Bob Dylan however, cultivating a sexual image did not make much sense. His music was of a more "serious" nature, appealing to those who were passionate about making the world a better place, ending the war, and finding meaning in life. For Bob Dylan to attempt to promote a sexual image would not make sense, and would probably have been confusing.