Elvis biopic has doubled the number of people learning the rock and roll icon’s songs on guitar, according to Fender Play

Elvis, the new Baz Lurhmann biopic charting the life of the King of Rock and Roll Elvis Presley, has caused a spike in the number of people seeking to learn how to play his songs on guitar.

According to Fender, whose Fender Play online guitar lessons platform includes tutorials on tracks like All Right, Jailhouse Rock, Heartbreak Hotel and Burning Love, double the number of users have been trying to learn Presley’s music since the film’s release.

Addressing the rise in popularity of Elvis’s music on the Fender Play platform, Fender SVP of Marketing Matt Watts says: “The lasting impact of an artist like Elvis is undeniable.

“His music is still inspiring people across the globe, young and old, to begin their own musical journeys and this is evident via this spike in activity we have seen.”

Elvis has once again illustrated the impact the inclusion of guitar music in popular films and TV shows can have on the appetite of a wider audience to begin playing guitar.

After Metallica’s 1986 thrash metal classic Master of Puppets was featured in the popular Netflix sci-fi series Stranger Things, online music learning app Yousician reported that the track became the number one song aspiring guitarists wanted to learn on its platform.

The company said that “despite it being a challenging song to pick up”, demand for the song from its users had risen by about 1,700 per cent since July 1, when the finale of Stranger Things season four debuted.

Additionally, Master of Puppets received 17.5 million Spotify downloads in the week following the episode’s release, and similarly, Elvis Presley’s music videos enjoyed a massive spike in views following Elvis’s opening weekend according to Vevo (per Digital Music News). For example, the video for Jailhouse Rock received five times more views that weekend than the previous 10 weekends.

Elvis is still showing in cinemas, though it became available to watch on Amazon Prime on August 8.

• JD Simo unpacks the legacy of Elvis Presley and reveals how he nailed Scotty Moore’s guitar tone for Baz Luhrmann’s new biopic