..Gospel
Gospel music is a musical genre characterized by dominant vocals (often with strong use of harmony) referencing lyrics of a religious nature, particularly Christian. Subgenres include contemporary gospel, urban contemporary gospel (sometimes referred to as "black gospel"), and modern Gospel music (now more commonly known as praise and worship or Contemporary Christian music). Most forms of gospel music use piano and/or Hammond organ, drums, bass guitar and, increasingly, electric guitar.
History
Gospel music is believed to have first come out of African-American churches in the first quarter of the 20th century or more loosely, to both black gospel music and to the religious music composed and sung by predominately white Southern Gospel artists. The sharp division between black and white America, particularly black and white churches, kept the two apart. While those divisions have lessened slightly in the past fifty years, the two traditions are still distinct. In both traditions, some performers, such as Mahalia Jackson have limited themselves to appearing in religious contexts only, while others, such as Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the Golden Gate Quartet and Clara Ward, have performed gospel music in secular settings, even night clubs. Many performers, such as The Jordanaires, The Blackwood Brothers, Al Green, and Solomon Burke have performed both secular and religious music. It is common for such performers to include gospel songs in otherwise secular performances, although the opposite almost never happens.
Gospel singer, songwriter, guitarist Sister Rosetta Tharpe was the first great star of Gospel music, surfacing on the pop music charts in 1938. She remained popular through the 1940s, continuing to hit the charts and drawing tens of thousands of fans to see her perform live in venues across the United States. She lost the support of some of her church fans, now and then, when she performed in secular venues as well, as when she recorded songs not recognized as 'Christian'. The fans she lost were somewhat forgiving, as she remained true to her faith, for the most part, throughout her recording career which spanned the remainder of her life.
Although predominantly an American phenomenon, gospel music has spread throughout the world including to Australia with choirs such as The Elementals and Jonah & The Whalers and festivals such as the Australian Gospel Music Festival. Norway is home to the popular Ansgar Gospel Choir, the only true Norwegian Gospel choir. Gospel is also popular in the province of Quebec, Canada, where important gospel choirs such as Montreal Jubilation Gospel Choir and Québec Celebration Gospel Choir are famous.
Gospel music genres
Urban Contemporary gospel
The music popularized by urban contemporary gospel pioneers had its roots mostly in spirituals sung by southern slaves during the 18th and 19th century but also in the freewheeling forms of religious devotion of 'Sanctified' or 'Holiness' churches, who encouraged individual church members to 'testify', speaking or singing spontaneously about their faith and experience, sometimes while dancing in celebration. In the 1920s Sanctified artists, such as Arizona Dranes, many of whom were also traveling preachers, started making records in a style that melded traditional religious themes with barrelhouse, blues and boogie-woogie techniques and brought jazz instruments, such as drums and horns, into the church.
Christian Country music
Christian country music, a subgenre of gospel music with a country flair, also known as Country Gospel or Inspirational Country.
Christian country music has been around for generations. It originated as a blend of early mountain music, cowboy music and the music from the plantations of the Deep South. It was out of this blend of music that Southern Gospel music was birthed and was found primarily in the southern states. Today, as Southern Gospel music seems to be waning in popularity, Christian country music has blended with a new brand of music called Positive Christian Country music. The music tends to deal with life's problems and God's answers to those problems, and it doesn't sound like the religious music of years past. It has attracted extraordinary talent and quality in production, thereby making it palatable to the ears of the un-churched who like the sounds of today's country music. It's becoming a tool for evangelism all over the world and through it many churches have sprung up around the country with country gospel as their main musical format. They are known as Cowboy churches.
Southern Gospel
Southern Gospel music is a popular American form of Christian music. The birth of the genre is generally considered to be 1910, which is the year the first professional quartet was formed for the purpose of selling songbooks for the James D. Vaughan Music Publishing Company.
Southern Gospel is sometimes called "quartet music" by fans due to the original all male, tenor-lead-baritone-bass quartet make-up. Early quartets were typically accompanied only by piano or guitar. Over time, full bands were added and even later, pre-record accompaniments were introduced. A typical modern Southern Gospel group performs with pre-recorded tracks augmented by a piano player and possibly a few other musicians.
Some of the genre's roots can be found in the publishing work and "normal schools" of Aldine S. Kieffer and Ephraim Ruebush. Southern Gospel was promoted by traveling singing school teachers, quartets, and shape note music publishing companies such as the A. J. Showalter Company (1879) and the Stamps-Baxter Music and Printing Company. Over time, Southern Gospel came to be an eclectic musical form with groups singing black gospel-influenced songs, traditional hymns, a capella songs, country gospel, bluegrass, and the difficult 'convention songs'.
Convention songs typically have contrasting homophonic and contrapuntal sections. In the homophonic sections, the four parts sing the same words and rhythms. In the contrapuntal sections, each group member has a unique lyric and rhythm. These songs are called 'convention songs' because various conventions were organized across the United States for the purpose of getting together regularly and singing songs in this style. Convention songs were employed by training centers like the Stamps-Baxter School Of Music as a way to teach quartet members how to concentrate on singing their own part. Examples of convention songs include "Heavenly Parade," "I'm Living In Canaan Now," "Give The World A Smile," and "Heaven's Jubilee."
In the first decades of the twentieth century, Southern Gospel drew much of its creative energy from the Holiness movement churches that arose throughout the south. Early gospel artists such as The Speer Family, The Blackwood Family, The Lefevre Trio and The Carter Family achieved wide popularity through their recordings and radio performances in the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. Others such as Homer Rodeheaver and the Cathedral Quartet, became well-known through their association with popular evangelists such as Billy Sunday and Rex Humbard.
Progressive Southern Gospel
Progressive Southern Gospel is an American music genre that has grown out of Southern Gospel over the past couple of decades. The style can trace its roots to groups like the Nelons in the 1980s, who appeared regularly on events with traditional Southern Gospel groups despite their sound which was called "middle of the road" at the time.
Current Progressive Southern Gospel is characterized by its blend of traditional Southern Gospel instrumentation with elements of modern Country and pop music. Hints of other styles are frequently employed in the mix as well. In some Progressive Southern Gospel, you can hear a touch of Cajun, Celtic, Bluegrass, or even Southern Rock.
Where traditional Southern Gospel more often emphasizes blend and polish, Progressive Southern Gospel tends to be presented with a more emotional tone. Vocalists are known for experimenting, stretching, scooping, slurring, and over accentuating melodies and diction.
Lyrically, Progressive Southern Gospel songs are patterned after traditional Southern Gospel in that they maintain a clear evangelistic and/or testimonial slant. In many cases, lyrical content and/or Country diction are the only elements separating a Progressive Southern Gospel artist from a pop oriented, Contemporary Christian music artist.
Bluegrass Gospel
Bluegrass gospel music is rooted in American mountain music.
Gospel blues
Gospel blues is a form of blues-based gospel music that has been around since the inception of blues music, a combination of blues guitar and evangelistic lyrics.
Source
http://en.wikipedia.org/
