By Brittany N. Howerton
You may prefer it with a soulful tap and a natural sway. You may prefer it with a banjo zing and clean harmonies. Or you may favor electric waves and heavy bass, accompanied by an eight-piece acoustic drum set.
Any way you wrap it, gospel music offers “valuable and longstanding contributions” that have characterized much of the country’s culture.
At least that’s what Congress said in June 2008 when it deemed September Gospel Music Heritage Month to honor “one of the cornerstones of the musical tradition of the United States.”
Although it was the mid-18th century when churches began to transition away from devout Psalms singing, it was not until the beginning of the 20th century that the idea of “gospel music” was truly stirred.
“The whole energy stirred up because of selling music,” said Joseph Hopkins, dean of the school of the arts at Samford University in Birmingham. “A few publishers jumped on that and started pushing the idea of that kind of music and selling books. Some of the early groups were like the Stamps Quartet, which was organized for the purpose of selling Stamps hymnals.”
Then the music started to take on a life of its own. Gospel music began to move from distinctly separate styles of spiritual songs and gospel blues to a crossbreed of artists like Amy Grant and Aretha Franklin, who moved the genre into mainstream media, the New World Encyclopedia (NWE) notes.
Subgenres began to appear featuring styles like bluegrass, country, urban gospel and R&B, creating rhythms that moved outside the confines of Sunday morning church services and making it possible to evangelize in new ways, Hopkins said.
Thomas A. Dorsey, known as the father of gospel music, paved the path for future urban gospel and R&B artists such as James Brown, Wilson Pickett, the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi, Mahalia Jackson and James Cleveland, the NWE states.
In other areas, southern gospel seemed to explode from the former white gospel spirituals, beginning with quartets. Later artists like Homer Rodeheaver, the Cathedrals and Cliff Barrows came on the scene through partnerships with evangelists Billy Sunday, Rex Humbard and Billy Graham.
Out of those developments grew Christian country (The Oak Ridge Boys), progressive southern gospel (The Nelons), bluegrass gospel (Doyle Lawson), gospel blues (Blind Willie Johnson) and contemporary Christian (Steven Curtis Chapman), creating a limitless list of gospel categories.
But even though its music began to pick up secular elements, gospel music should be set apart by its purpose and heart, Hopkins said.
“We’re using it for the purpose of glorifying God and bringing others to Christ, and … its heart is centered on Him rather than us.”
Pleasant View Baptist Church, Holly Pond, in Blount Baptist Association long ago recognized the opportunity presented by gospel music.
Pastor Randy Burtram said the church’s third Sunday night singings have been going on for longer than he can remember, and he’s been there 12 years.
“We have mostly southern gospel and sometimes bluegrass,” Burtram said. “And every once in awhile for youth services, we’ll have music a touch more contemporary, too.”
He said the gospel singings are not only a great opportunity for his congregation to enjoy a musical evening of worship but also a great way to reach out to people in the community who may never come to church otherwise.
“We have people that come to our singings that don’t come to any other service we have,” Burtram said. “Well if you can share in song that Christ died on the cross, then maybe you’re at least planting a seed, and so singing does share the gospel in that way.”
And that’s part of what makes gospel music powerful, Hopkins said. “It has made the Church a welcome place for the person who doesn’t know the Church.”
That hook to draw in the masses dates back to the beginning of the Protestant Reformation in 1517, he noted. “Back when (Martin) Luther hung his theses on the wall, they began to create a new music tradition and sing in the language of the people instead of Latin.
“They did it again in England in several of the revivals that took place along the way, and it was powerful because people were familiar with the sound but were hearing a very different text and a different message. … So the fact that [gospel music] could welcome the person who doesn’t know the Church in such a wonderful way has been the power of it.”
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