It can be argued that the popular success of musical performers is a commercial commodity to be made and sold, but the cultural importance of Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley transcends the millions of dollars they earned. In each case, a single artist came to be symbolic for the youth of an era, an idol representing not only contemporary taste but also, perhaps, a generation's desire for recognition in the present and their collective hopes for achieving the American dream in the future. Each performer carried his original cohort of fans and added new acolytes as his music moved through time and evolved stylistically. Both ensured their success as recording artists through live performances and through motion picture appearances. Coming from backgrounds that were simultaneously different (northern urban versus rural southern) and similar (humble but with middle class aspirations), they symbolized movements in mass culture touched by specific time and place. As they broke from traditional standards and boundaries, they appealed to the emerging self-awareness of youth in mid-century America. Through their contributions to American popular culture, Sinatra and Presley came to be identified with their respective eras—not only at their genesis as pop icons but throughout their lives. Within the first decade of their careers, both Frank and Elvis transcended the teenage market: The teen idols became pop stars through media exposure, film careers, public acceptance by the mainstream of their personal images and of their chosen musical forms, and the aging of their original fans.

During the post–World War II age of abundance, the United States experienced unprecedented material prosperity and population growth. The “teenager,” originally a social and economic cultural phenomenon identified during the war years, became increasingly important in American popular culture. For the teens, as well as their parents, material well-being was seen as an entitlement of the expanding middle class, and whether or not their individual circumstances placed them in the comfort of white suburbia, as a generation they took a level of material satisfaction for granted.