Gospel

Gospel Music is the fusion of Blues, Ragtime, Country Folk, and contemporary sounds that usually come together to sing the praises of God. Creating originally Anglican roots songs such as Amazing Grace was born. It was then broadened in the nineteenth century by baptist evangelist Phillip Bliss.  As I stated before the word gospel meant the biblical message of Jesus being the son of God. As popularity grew, white churches started to incorporate Gospel music in their own church spaces. Thus creating folk country gospel music that was wide spread during the 1870s. A key artist for the folk gospel was the Carter Family.

As gospel music became more popular it began to rise within the African-American church more and more. Since Gospel music was now being recorded and listened to, it became more widespread and gained more notoriety. A man named Thomas A. Dorsey saw the rise of popularity and decided to pounce upon it. He created a publishing company for the sole purpose of publishing the art form. During the Great Migration, it started the golden age of black gospel music. The great migration refers to black people taking the exodus out of the south and creating a new life in the North. This was a period of renaissance in the black community. By the 1960s artists such as Aretha Franklin, and Sam Cooke would stray away from the old way of doing gospel music putting soul and different genres in the mix. Lastly, we now enter the current stage of Gospel music. We have artists such as Kirk Franklin, The Clark Sisters, Maverick City Music, that are all taking each from of Gospel and making it their own.