Gospel music is a product of the religion, culture, and history that constitute the African American experience.
Timeline
1619 – The first Africans are brought to the British colony of Jamestown as indentured servants. The African’s emphasis on musical elements such as call and response, improvisation, polyrhythms, and percussive affinities will form the basis of gospel and all other forms of African American musical expression.
1674 – Hymnist and theologian Isaac Watts (1674-1748) is born in England. The writer of more than 750 hymns, his songs will become so popular among African Americans that they are simply referred to as “an old Dr. Watts.”
1730’s – The Great Awakening, a religious revival in British North America, signals the first major effort to Christianize enslaved Africans.
1777 – George Leile establishes the First African Baptist Church of Savannah, Georgia, the oldest Black church in North America.
1780 – John Wesley’s A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People Called Methodist is published. Songs such as “There is a Fountain Filled with Blood” and “Father I Stretch My Hands to Thee” quickly become standards of the African American sacred music tradition.
1787 – With the establishment of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the first independent African American Christian denomination in the United States is created.
1800’s – African American innovation in Christian-centered sacred music begins to distinguish itself in the forms of spirituals, shouts, lined-hymns, and anthems.
1865 – Slavery legally abolished with the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.
1871 – The Fisk Jubilee Singers set out on their inaugural tour to raise money to help save Fisk University from closure. Eventually becoming an international tour, the choir brings the sacred music of African Americans the attention of the world. The Jubilee Singers also provide a model a tight, four part harmony-centered, choral singing that will continue for generations within the African American community.
1901 – Songwriter and religious leader Charles Albert Tindley begins publishing songs in Philadelphia. Classic compositions by Tindley include “Stand By Me,” “We’ll Understand it Better By and By,” and “Some Day (Beams of Heaven).”
1906 – The Azusa Street Revival begins in Los Angeles under the direction of the African American religious pioneer William Seymour. In addition to giving rise to modern-day Pentecostalism, the music of the revival recaptures the energy of the pre-emancipation shouts and is one of the key events in the development of gospel music.
1920’s – American recording companies begin producing “race records” to market to the African American consumer. In addition to blues, ragtime, and early jazz, African American preachers and gospel artists such as Arizona Dranes, Blind Willie Johnson, and Washington Phillips will also be highlighted in part because of the fresh, raw sound. This music is also referred to as the gospel blues and the holy blues.
1921 – The National Baptist Convention publishes the songbook Gospel Pearls, the first hymnal from a major African American denomination to include selections of the new music that would become known as gospel.
1931 – Theodore Frye and Thomas A. Dorsey create the first gospel chorus. Dorsey would go on to co-found the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses. Included among Dorsey’s more than 400 compositions are the gospel standards “Precious Lord,” “Peace in the Valley,” and “Highway to Heaven.”
1938 – Sister Rosetta Tharpe scores the first million-selling gospel record with the hit single “This Train.” Tharpe was the dominant gospel music performer of the late 1930’s and 1940’s, mixing soulful guitar licks and big band accompaniment with sacred lyrics.
1945-1965 – The Golden Age of Gospel—due to its unprecedented popularity—was dominated by soloists such as Mahalia Jackson and groups like Swan Silvertones, the Caravans, and the Original Gospel Harmonettes. Perhaps the most important group to this expansion beyond the church walls was the Clara Ward Singers.
1967 – “Oh Happy Day” is recorded by the Northern California State Youth Choir (later dubbed the Edwin Hawkins Singers). This one song almost single-handedly creates the genre known as contemporary gospel. Key groups, soloists, and composers in this movement include Walter Hawkins, Tramaine Hawkins, Andraé Crouch and the Disciples, the Winans, and the Clark Sisters. Reverend James Cleveland and Mattie Moss Clark helped give rise to the movement by their tireless work composing, arranging, and recording for large choirs.
1997 – “Stomp!!,” from “God’s Property From Kirk Franklin’s Nu Nation,” is released, blowing open the doors of the church and demanded that it make room for urban culture.
Gospel music is a genre of Christian music. The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of gospel music varies according to culture and social context. Gospel music is composed and performed for many purposes, including aesthetic pleasure, religious or ceremonial purposes, and as an entertainment product for the marketplace.
Hymns and sacred songs were often repeated in a call and response fashion. Most of the churches relied on hand clapping and foot stomping as rhythmic accompaniment. Most of the singing was done a cappella.
Subgenres include contemporary gospel, urban contemporary gospel (sometimes referred to as "black gospel"), Southern gospel, and modern gospel music (now more commonly known as praise and worship music or contemporary Christian music). Gospel blues is a blues-based form of gospel music (a combination of blues guitar and evangelistic lyrics).[not verified in body] Southern gospel used all male, tenor-lead-baritone-bass quartet make-up. Progressive Southern gospel is an American music genre that has grown out of Southern gospel over the past couple of decades. Christian country music, sometimes referred to as country gospel music, is a subgenre of gospel music with a country flair. It peaked in popularity in the mid-1990s.
Bluegrass gospel music is rooted in American mountain music. Celtic gospel music infuses gospel music with a Celtic flair, and is quite popular in countries such as Ireland. British black gospel refers to Gospel music of the African diaspora, which has been produced in the UK.
"Lining out" – where one person sang a solo and others followed – into the call and response of gospel music of the American South.[8] Coming out of the African-American religious experience, American gospel music can be traced to the early 17th century.[1] Gospel music has roots in the black oral tradition, and typically utilizes a great deal of repetition, which allows those who could not read the opportunity to participate in worship. During this time, hymns and sacred songs were lined and repeated in a call and response fashion, and Negro spirituals and work songs emerged. Repetition and "call and response" are accepted elements in African music, designed to achieve an altered state of consciousness we sometimes refer to as "trance", and strengthen communal bonds.
Work Songs
African-American work songs originally developed in the era of captivity, between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. Because they were part of an almost entirely oral culture they had no fixed form and only began to be recorded as the era of slavery came to an end after 1865. Slave Songs of the United States was the first collection of African-American 'slave songs.' It was published in 1867 by William Francis Allen, Charles Pickard Ware, and Lucy McKim Garrison.[8] Though this text included many songs by enslaved people, other texts have also been published that include work songs. Many songs sung by enslaved individuals have their origins in African song traditions, and may have been sung to remind the Africans of home, while others were instituted by the captors to raise morale and keep Africans working in rhythm.[9] They have also been seen as a means of withstanding hardship and expressing anger and frustration through creativity or covert verbal opposition.[10] Similarly, work songs have been used as a form of rebellion and resistance. [11] Work songs helped to pass down information about the lived experience of enslaved people to their communities and families. [13]
A common feature of African American songs was the call-and-response format, where a leader would sing a verse or verses and the others would respond with a chorus. This came from African traditions of agricultural work song and found its way into the spirituals (Christian songs created by African - Americans) that developed once Africans in bondage began to convert to Christianity and from there to both gospel music and the blues. The call and response format showcases the ways in which work songs foster dialogue. The importance of dialogue is illuminated in many African American traditions and continues on to the present day. [14] Particular to the African call and response tradition is the overlapping of the call and response.[15] The leader's part might overlap with the response, thus creating a unique collaborative sound. Often times, there will be multiple rhythmic patterns used in the same song "resulting in a counterpoint of rhythms."[17] The focus on polyphony also allows for improvisation, a component that is crucial to African-American work songs. Also evident were field hollers, shouts, and moans, which may have been originally designed for different bands or individuals to locate each other and narrative songs that used folk tales and folk motifs, often making use of homemade instruments.[21] In early African captivity drums were used to provide rhythm, but they were banned in later years because of the fear that Africans would use them to communicate in a rebellion; nevertheless, Africans managed to generate percussion and percussive sounds, using other instruments or their own bodies.[22] Perhaps surprisingly, there are very few examples of work songs linked to cotton picking.[23]
Corn, however, was a very common subject of work songs on a typical plantation. Because the crop was the main component of most Africans' diet.
All them pretty gals will be there,
Shuck that corn before you eat;
They will fix it for us rare,
Shuck that corn before you eat.
I know that supper will be big,
Shuck that corn before you eat;
I think I smell a fine roast pig,
Shuck that corn before you eat.
— Slaves in the Antebellum South
Another common type of African American work song was the "boat song." Sung by enslaved people who had the job of rowing, this type of work song is characterized by "plaintive, melancholy singing." These songs were not somber because the work was more troublesome than the work of harvesting crops. Rather, they were low-spirited so that they could maintain the slow, steady tempo needed for rowing. In this way, work songs followed the African tradition, emphasizing the importance of activities being accompanied by the appropriate song.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_black_gospel
It is composed and performed for many purposes, ranging from aesthetic pleasure, religious or ceremonial purposes, or as an entertainment product for the marketplace. However, a common theme as with most Christian music is praise, worship or thanks to God and Christ.[1]
Traditional gospel music was popular in the mid-20th century. It is the primary source for urban contemporary gospel and Christian hip hop, which rose in popularity during the very late 20th century and early 21st century.
The origins of gospel music are during American slavery, when enslaved Africans were introduced to the Christian religion and converted in large numbers. Remnants of different African cultures were combined with Western Christianity, with one result being the emergence of the spiritual. Jubilee songs and sorrow songs were two type of spirituals that emerged during the 18th and 19th centuries.
Some spirituals were also used to pass on hidden messages; for example, when Harriet Tubman was nearby, slaves would sing "Go Down, Moses" to signify that a 'deliverer' was nearby. At this time, the term "gospel songs" referred to evangelical hymns sung by Protestant (Congregational and Methodist) Christians, especially those with a missionary theme. Gospel composers included writers like Ira D. Sankey and Mason Lowry, and Charles B. Tindell. Hymns, Protestant gospel songs, and spirituals make up the basic source of modern black gospel
In the 1930s gospel music of the civil rights movement was referred to as the black gospel period because this was the most prosperous era for gospel music. The message of many of the civil rights activist was supported by the message gospel music was putting forth.
Gospel artists, who had been influenced by pop music trends for years, had a major influence on early rhythm and blues artists, particularly the "bird groups" such as the Orioles, the Ravens and the Flamingos, who applied gospel quartets' a cappella techniques to pop songs in the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s. These groups based their music on sounds they had been singing in church and were now releasing gospel-styled reworking of songs for a secular audience.[5] The influence of gospel was apparent in new versions of pop standards or new songs in a pop style.[6] Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard were rock 'n' roll pioneers with a religious background. Like other artists, these pioneers were stylistically influenced by gospel and it contributed to their music. Elvis was successful in performing his gospel favorites, "Why me Lord," How Great Thou Art, and "You'll never walk alone." For all of his success as a rock 'n' roll singer, he only received awards for his gospel recordings.[7]
Individual gospel artists, such as Sam Cooke, a former member of the Soul Stirrers, and secular artists who borrowed heavily from gospel, such as Ray Charles, James Brown, James Booker and Jackie Wilson, had an even greater impact later in the 1950s, helping to create soul music by bringing even more gospel inspired harmonies and traditions from rhythm and blues.[8][9] Many of the most prominent soul artists, such as Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, Wilson Pickett and Al Green, had roots in the church and gospel music and brought with them much of the vocal styles of artists such as Clara Ward and Julius Cheeks.
https://www.bartleby.com/essay/The-History-of-Slave-Music-and-its-F36ULLYTC
This eventually led to spirituality development which acted as a basis for Christianity leading to modern day gospels and blues.
Religious songs were also another group. They were sung accompanied by clapping of hands and foot stamping. Slaves had their own ways of praying and worshipping in their native land which assisted them to be introduced to Christianity. Africans used to sing songs, give testimonies and worship to their gods and deities; a culture which they could not forsake. These songs were classified as work, jubilee and social. Work songs sung while working in the field to give the black community hope and freedom. Social songs contained social messages and the jubilee songs were sung in the church.
http://www.earlygospel.com/eg-origins.htm
Slavery Era
From the need to subjugate or from fear, many American slave owners did not allow blacks to use traditional African instruments, nor could they play or sing their native music. Gradually much of the words and melodies were forgotten and disappeared in North America. It is because of this ban on their musical ancestry that a new African American style of music was created. New songs were created using the African traditions of harmony, call and response, behind a strong rhythmic meter mixed with European traditions of harmony and musical instruments.
Thomas Dorsey
He attained a position at Pilgrim Baptist Church in Chicago where he organized one of the first gospel choirs. He also founded the first gospel publishing house by African American composers. By organizing the first National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses in 1932, he nationalized the gospel music tradition.
By obeying the voice of God and utilizing his gifts, Thomas A. Dorsey, revolutionized sacred church music and ushered in a new genre: gospel.
Father of Gospel
Thomas A. Dorsey is called the father of gospel music. (best known as author of the song ” Thomas A. Dorsey (best known as the author of the song “Precious Lord, Take My Hand”), who had spent the 1920s writing and performing secular blues music under the name “Georgia Tom”, turned to gospel music, establishing a publishing house
Gospel music is deeply rooted in the rich traditions of the African-American church. During the late 1800s, African-American churches in the southern United States started fusing various styles of music into their worship services, including African-American spirituals, hymns, and sacred songs.
Gospel music keeps you focus. From the early 1600’s right through to the American Civil War in 1865 groups of African American slaves in the Southern states sought solace in work songs and field hollers to ease the drudgery of hard labour in the fields, on the railroads, in the turpentine camps, wherever slaves were put to work as forced labour. The ‘call and response’ religion-based songs that gave them hope for a brighter future.
Porter Wagoner & The Blackwood Brothers Quartet won the first ever Grammy Award for Best Gospel/Contemporary Christian Music Performance in 1968
Fundamentally, gospel music refers to popularly performed music that professes or celebrates Gospel-based Christian values. The earliest gospel music consisted of hymns sung by the earliest post-Resurrection disciples that transitioned from traditional Judaic sacred songs to songs focused on Jesus and Gospel values.
Christian artists have been performing notably since the 1960’s but the Billboard Charts didn’t recognize the genre until after 1995. Today, there are four notable Christian genres, including gospel music, southern gospel, contemporary Christian music and alternative Christian music.
British black gospel refers to Gospel music of the African diaspora, which has been produced in the UK. It is also often referred to as urban contemporary gospel or UK Gospel. The distinctive sound is heavily influenced by UK street culture with many artists from the African and Caribbean majority black churches in the UK.
Yolanda Adams is the #1 leading female gospel artist in American. She is also a record producer, actress, and former radio host of her own nationally syndicated morning gospel show.
Gospel music can be traced to the early 17th century during slavery through what was called hymns or rather or rather Negro Spirituals and sacred songs which were repeated in a call and response acapella fashion
Most secular music artists have been touched by the power of gospel music. It is important to know that, it’s always rare to find an artist that has not been inspired by the power of gospel band music. Most of the secular music artists we see today have started their careers in the church choir – to name a few: Whitney Houston, R Kelly, Katy Perry, John Legend, among others.
God’s Property from Kirk Franklin’s Nu Nation was No. 1 on the R&B Albums chart for five weeks, No. 3 on the Pop charts, and would go on to be certified 3x platinum. It also brought Franklin a Grammy for Best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album, as well as three Grammy nominations
At church, hymns and psalms were sung during services. Some of them were transformed into songs of a typical African American form: they are "Dr Watts”.
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