At the University of Iowa, fifty students enrolled for a class called "American Popular Arts: Elvis as Anthology." The class, led by Professor Peter Nazareth, will "concentrate on the music and singers Elvis Presley was influenced by, copied, mimicked, paid tribute to or reworked... The purpose of listening to the music... is to see that there was a whole lotta signifyin' going on," according to the syllabus.

Nazareth says he "imagines Elvis as a book that you open up, and you find so many people in the book." Or, according to the syllabus, that Elvis "contained a series of doors that opened inward into America, breaking down racial barriers at a time when the struggle for racial equality was taking place. In doing so, the doors opened out into the whole wide world." The course will establish connections between Elvis's style and the styles of Mahalia Jackson, Little Richard, Mario Lanza, Bing Crosby and Nat "King" Cole. Nazareth wants to explore the "multicultural Elvis."

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