Frank Sinatra Personality

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Pages: 6

The iconic personality of Frank Sinatra is one that is often talked about. Was he a good person? Bad? Was he well liked or not? Most people know him for his music, and for the fact that he did much to popularize the “crooner” singing style of the 1940’s and beyond. When people think of a crooner, Sinatra might be the first to come to mind. Although there were other crooners, they are not heard about quite so much. This is an interesting thing and the reason why it is important to know how Frank Sinatra influenced American popular music and culture. He became a sort of cultural icon himself. He became the perfect go-to example of the person who puts on a façade, even though deep down inside he was a lonely and tortured person like everyone …show more content…
Until Sinatra, the vocalist was always a part of a group and the group was conceived as a whole. In an article by Elysa Gardner in USA Today, she contends that he was the first to be a “rockstar” even before the likes of those such as Elvis Presley. (“10 Ways Frank Sinatra Changed the World”). He brought the role of the singer into the forefront, and became an example for a later breed of popular singers such as Freddie Mercury of Queen and Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones. He was the precursor to the celebrity idiom. He became an entity all on his own, chased by the media. Gardner says he was a womanizer and his sexual energy and charisma spoke to this while on …show more content…
If it wasn’t for the media keeping tabs on Sinatra, it would not have been possible to develop the “crooner” image so thoroughly. The idea of a crooner being a celebrity was a new one and it took a while for the public to get used to the idea that such a figure could hold the status that he did. In the culture of the time, it was frowned upon to be Sinatra’s age, not married, and living the sort of renegade lifestyle that he did. Sinatra did well to make such a lifestyle popular. Michael Frontani comments on such a lifestyle in his article, "From the Bottom to the Top": Frank Sinatra, the American Myth of Success, and the Italian-American Image”. He notes that Frank’s mother wanted him to have a successful career but a lucrative one: “Dolly [Sinatra's mother] gave it to him straight. ‘Listen Frank, you're going to be something nice, like an engineer, and I don't want no more argument.’ Coming from a poor family, this was a normal thing for his mother to want. According to the “American Dream” of the time, it was expected that one would work hard and keep pushing their way up through the folds in order to land a successful career. According to Frontani, he instead aspired to have a career in the music industry. Frontani also says that although he waited tables while he was young, he got his “big break” when