MUSIC: IS ROCK 'N' ROLL A WHITE MAN'S GAME?

Sam Phillips, the man who discovered Elvis Presley, denies he ever said it, but the quote is still among the most famous--and most prescient--in the history of rock 'n' roll. "If I could find a white man who had the Negro sound and the Negro feel," Phillips is said to have said, "I could make a billion dollars." In a segregrated America in which certain radio stations would not play songs by black artists, Presley more than filled the bill, and in the process helped solidify the image of rock 'n' roll as the music of white teenage rebellion. Unfortunately for...

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