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In 1957, a short article appeared in Harper's Magazine—an article that would handily summarize (and even satirize) the ways in which visual culture participated in the transnational features of rock and roll. In the article, a "Mr. Harper" tells of receiving a letter from a journalist in Communist Czechoslovakia. The (probably fictional) Czech wrote from behind the Iron Curtain to Mr. Harper: "I heard about rock "n" roll. Is it a new style of jazz, or does it belong to popular music? I would be glad to hear it. How does Elvis Presley sing? I had lent a Canadian journal Liberty, issue from August 1956, and in this is a picture from Elvis Presley while singing and playing on guitar. He looks as in ecstasy."¹ This is no doubt an American fantasy of what rock and roll's global influence might ostensibly be when consumed by someone at the outskirts of America's cultural reach, but it effectively summarizes the ways in which such a reach was achieved. Popular music was an export of imagery as well as sound. The Czech writer sees an image of Elvis before he hears him. The reader is left to guess at the reason the Czech writer has never heard Elvis Presley: that the Communist state has, in rock's early stages, been able to control American music's influx within their borders. And it is this image of the singer that makes him want to hear more. The Harper's article hints at the transgressive nature of rock and roll—the music crossed both cultural and international boundaries (even an Iron Curtain).

DOI: 10.1057/9781137375230_13

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