Go to main content

What Made Us Jump In 2004?

By Espen K., January 06, 2005 | Other
Byebye 2004, welcome 2005! And with the new year I am honored to introduce a new, regular column in ElvisNews.com. Written by yours faithfully.

And your faithfully in this case, is me. Espen K, a thirty-something year old man from Norway. I am the editor of Nattguiden, a norwegian webzine with focus on clubb/music/youth culture in Oslo. In the weekends you may find me working as a DJ, pumping the beats of today out to the kids of today.

So, what am I doing here, you may ask.

Many find it strange that I can both be an active participant in todays modern dance music/culture, as well as an enthusiastic Elvis-fan. On the contrary, in my opinion. It makes perfect sense. Elvis was the beginning of modern music. But not only that, he was the beginning of modern entertainment as we know it today. And his incredible talent still shine, his music is still so alive, decades after he passed away. How could I NOT be thrilled by such a man?

I discovered Elvis when I was about six years old, after seeing him on TV for the first time. The following days I often ran to my mother and asked:

"Mom, what was the name of that man I saw on TV the other day, again?"
"That was Elvis, my son."
"He was cool!"

I still think he is.

The purpose of my column

By the end of each month I will do a summary of the Elvismonth we are about to leave behind. Hopefully in an informative and entertaining way. I will write this from two perspectives: From a news perspective and a community perspective.

Because, one of the things I like best about Elvisnews.com is that it has an amazing contrast in content. Two equally important, but quite different parts:

One part is the content published by ElvisNews. The news, always objective and delivered straight from the source. And the articles, written in a structured, calm and informative way.

Then we got the comments from the community. Chaotic, impulsive and utterly subjective, usually voicing either the unconditionally positive, or the utmost negative opinions.
Don't you just love this contrast? I know I do!

But lets start this column by taking a look back at the stories that triggered the most heated discussions and amount of comments during 2004:

The Top Five Outrageous Elvis News Of 2004!
We asked the server to give us a list of the most commented news stories during 2004 (see the links at the bottom of the page). This is the result:

# 5: Usher Beats Elvis At No. 1!
This fall Usher was #1 in the UK for 28 weeks, beating Elvis' old record with two weeks.
... Or did he, really?
We quickly concluded that noone knew who Usher were anyways, and the record business nowadays compared to back then cant be compared at all. Oh, and he cant sing either. Sorry Usher, you loose!

# 4: Pet Accessories!
When Fox and Hounds Ltd. proudly announced that they would bring Presley To the pooches, they probably thought that was a funny idea. Not every ElvisNews reader shared that view. Or, as CD King put it: "EPE has certainly gone to the Dogs."

# 3: Robert F.X. Sillerman And EPE Announce Partnership!
It was of great concern to many when it became official that EPE entered a partnership and shared the rights of the Presley trademark and property. What will happen now? Is this the end of the Elvisworld as we know it?

# 2: Comeback And Aloha DVD Cover And Content!
Most of you got to agree with me when I say that the release of the 68 Comeback And Aloha DVDs this summer made the year 2004 one of the greatest Elvis-years in a very very long time. When ElvisNews published the cover and content of these DVDs, we all screamed in joy. Oh - and some complained about the artwork, of course. The praise made this the second most commented story of the year 2004. And rightfully so!

But not even the news about these awsome new DVDs managed to create the same amount of comments as:

The Most Outrageous Elvis News Of 2004!
This one caused the most comments of all the news stories published in ElvisNews during this year. It is therefore the most outrageous Elvis news of 2004. The news that made the Elvis-community go rock'a'hula. The story that received comments like:

"This has to be a joke! Right?"
"Elvis would top the list in a landslide. Anyone using 1/4 of their mind with a pea size brain would realize that."
"It's a rubbish magazine, everyone knows that."
"The poll is bogus."
"It's almost like saying John the Baptist is greater than Jesus."

... What could possibly trigger such reactions?

What made us jump in fury and frustration and create the highest number of comments during 2004, were when Q magazine did a poll on who thei readers though was the "greatest rock and roll icon of all time". Elvis came second. Second after John Lennon. Mister John "Before Elvis there was nothing" Lennon. That was more than we could handle.

Relive the moment and enjoy the discussion that followed after The Most Outrageous Elvisnews Of 2004: Elvis 2nd To Lennon! (see link below)

2005: What now, my love?

We got a new year ahead of us, packed with controversal Elvisnews, exciting releases, lousy covers and surprising events!

Did I hear someone say "Hold your horses, boy. We don't know what this year will bring"?

Wrong.

Stop reading now if you dont like spoilers. Cause right here and now I'm gonna tell you how the Elvisyear 2005 is gonna be like. Sit back and enjoy!

This year FTD/BMG will be faithful to their tradition of disappointing their never resting, never quite happy Elvis-crowd. Yeah, thats us I'm talking about here. The cover art can never be quite good enough, can it? Of course not. And the sound could always be better, couldnt it? Of course it could. And we are sure they got a better quality recording hidden away somewhere.

The concerts and studio recordings Ernst & co decide to share with us this year will not be exactly what we had hoped for, and we would for certain do a MUCH better job if we were given the opportunity. What do some darn danish longhaired hippie know about this anyways.

And between the BMG and FTD-releases ElvisNews.com will report about numerous Elvis-related polls, products and news from all over the world, created by the retarded press and their incompetent readers. The non-believers. We all know they should never be given the right to vote in the first place. (As a matter of fact, we would like to shove them into a huge hall, close the door behind them and throw away the key. Then we would feed them fried peanutbutter sandwiches week after week, month after month until they all in harmony cried a perfect version of "don't be cruel (alt. take 4)" and "treat me nice (alt. take 6&8 spliced)" from the top of their longues. Yeah!)

And by the end of each month to come, you and I will look back on what happened that month, and say "my oh my - what an Elvis-month"!

In other words: This will be great year!

Kind regards,

Espen K.
Gabben wrote on January 07, 2005
Great Espen, I`m looking forward to next month`s "rewiew". Your buddy, Eivind !
pacer1965 wrote on January 18, 2005
Espen k looks like your going to have plenty to talk about for january. I cannot wait to read it. It should be very interesting