American Roots of Gospel Music!
Hey ya'll! It's AC here again! This is probably my favorite blog yet. I mainly listen to gospel/christian music, so discussing the history of this genre of music is going to be very interesting and fun for me! So let's dive into this now. Gospel emerged in America in the nineteen thirties , which was during the slavery era and American Protestantism. It mainly emerged from three types of musical activities. The first one is the hymn style of Charles Albert Tindley, he was a Philadelphia minister who composed hymns based on negro spirituals, adding instrumentals. The second one is the minimalist, solo-sung "rural gospel" tunes that appeared as a counterpart to the rural blues, and the last, but not least the uninhibited, exuberant worship style of the Holiness-Pentecostal branch of the christian church. Here is a video clip of the Holiness- Pentecostal church music that will give you a taste of the basis of the start of gospel music.
We see one of the first big artists of gospel music was Dorothy Love Coates. Her father was a minister and she started playing the piano and getting into music at the early age of ten years old. As a teenager she performed with the Royal Travelers, she also had a weekly live radio broadcast called WLJD. In 1947, Coates joined the Original Gospel Harmonettes. We see in 1961, the Harmonettes regrouped with Willie Mae Garth, Mildred Howard, Coates, Coates younger sister Lillian McGriff, and Cleo Kennedy. A side note is that Coates was active in the civil rights movement during the 1950s and 1960s. She actually marched with Martin Luther King Jr. and worked in voter registration drives. She sang at numerous benefit concerts and civil rights rallies and was arrested more than once for her civil rights activism. She did sing Then in 1970 the Harmonettes went their separate and Coates joined together the Dorothy Love Coates singers and they toured Europe multiple times. Coates was a great musician and artist and along with her music success was in two films, "The Long walk Home" (1990) and "Beloved" (1998). She lived a good life and died of heart failure on April ninth two thousand two in Birmingham. She left behind two daughters. Here is one of her all time hits "You have been good to me".
I am going to discuss more about Kirk Franklin because he has his hand in gospel, but also in Christian R and B as well as specifically urban contemporary gospel. He is a very decorated artist, he has won many awards, including nineteen grammy awards, which is honestly so amazing. He is fifty three years old and has four kids, he is amazing and picks specific song topics such as the family, God's property, and One Nation Crew. He has been present in the music industry since nineteen ninety two till today.
One of the most popular gospel singers of the 1970s was Gloria Spencer. Gloria Spencer was born in 1937 in Steelton, Pennsylvania, with a rare thyroid glandular condition that caused rapid weight gain, she did not let this stop her from pursuing her talents and passions. She began her singing career in church at the early age of three and taught herself the piano shortly after. After she graduated high school she worked as a typist at the capital in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania during the week. On the weekends is when she tours the East Coast singing gospel music which is her true passion. In the early 1970s Spencer was signed to Jaywalking Records and two short years later her album, "Gloria's Views of Glory" was released. Then four years later her next album, "For Once in My Life" was released in 1976. This album included a mix of gospel standers like "Amazing Grace" and her rendition of "I'll Fly Away" where she references her older sisters passing in the song. Shorty after she passed away from heart failure on April second nineteen seventy six. Here is one of her hits, is her version of "I'll fly away" which was a tribute to her sisters passing, it is beautiful!
Resources Used:
- Wikimedia Foundation. (2023a, October 13). Gloria Spencer. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloria_Spencer#:~:text=Gloria%20Spencer%20(March%2018%2C%201937,Spencer%20released%20only%20two%20albums.
- African American gospel : ritual and worship : musical styles : articles and essays : the library of Congress celebrates the songs of America : digital collections : library of Congress. The Library of Congress. (n.d.). https://www.loc.gov/collections/songs-of-america/articles-and-essays/musical-styles/ritual-and-worship/african-american-gospel#:~:text=During%20the%201930s%2C%20Gospel%20music,third%20and%20seventh%20intervals%3B%20b)
- Scott-Zerr, A. M. (2021, May 7). Dorothy Love Coates (1928-2002) •. •. https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/coates-dorothy-love-1928-2002/
- Gospel music | definition, origin & history - study.com. (n.d.). https://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-gospel-music-definition-history-artists.html
- Wikimedia Foundation. (2023, October 15). Kirk Franklin. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirk_Franklin
- CeCe Winans – best selling female gospel artist of all time. (n.d.-a). https://cecewinans.com/
My mother and grandmother both love Kirk Franklin's music because of their shared love for gospel music. I love how detailed and organized your information is.
ReplyDeleteHi AC, I love kirk franklin's music my mother used to play it all the time in the mornings and I love how the information you included about him and how detail it was.
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