Undeniably a highly influential album in the history of rock 'n' roll and popular music. Elvis presents in his debut album a mosaic of rockabilly, rhythm and blues, and pop. His voice is not yet fully mature, but I think it fits with his unrefined, short tunes intended for a young audience. His characteristic halting, erratic vocal inflection is most exaggerated on One-Sided Love Affair, and I had to skip that track on my second listen—to me, it's just annoying. The circumstances of this release were the perfect storm: a generation of youths with more free time than ever, ripe to be the first "teenagers" with a shared youth culture; and the rise of television, among other things. Elvis likely could have been replaced with another handsome white boy that could sing and was willing to look a little silly on stage, and they would've done well. All that said, I can appreciate the floodgates that were opened by Elvis for the wider adoption of historically Black musical idioms into the popular culture. I'd choose almost anything else to listen to over Elvis, influential though he may be.