African American Gospel Music Essay

Spirituals, a religious folk song of American origin, particularly associated with African-American Protestants of the southern United States. The African-American spiritual, characterized by syncopation, polyrhythmic structure, and the pentatonic scale of five whole tones, is, above all, a deeply emotional song. Spirituals are really the most characteristic product of the race genius as yet in America. But the very elements which make them uniquely expressive of the Negro make them at the same time deeply representative of the soil that produced them. Spirituals were long thought to be the only original folk music of the United States, and research into its origin centered mainly on the nature and extent of its African

Eileen Southern’s The Music of Black Americans: A History she examines the influence that African Americans had in the holiness churches in music and worship. She initially starts with the landing of the first Africans to the colonies and she creates a phenomenal conversation of the musicians in the new world. She details the progression in the gospel, classical, jazz, rap, blues and the contributions they made.

Over the years, African American Music has developed as not only as cultural but also artistic phenomenon affecting the world. The music takes its own stand of being dominant as well of having a prevailing means of expression through the use of the lyrics. The lyrics of many songs tend to use a specific type of language in order to create that connection between the listeners. This certain style of language helps the listeners to think on a deeper level about the real meaning behind the lyrics.

Negro spirituals was a “genre” of music introduced by African American slaves in response to their lives and treatment by the white race. It gave many slaves the voice of opposition that they never had and allowed them to subliminally speak against their masters without fear of consequences. Said to have originated from slaves who were “Unable to read the Bible for themselves and skeptical of their masters’ interpretation of it…” (Raboteau). These songs were “… the message of the Christian gospel… translated… into

During my early years of school, I remember being taught white accomplishments and wondering if blacks and other people of color had made any significant contributions to today's world. I noticed that television consist of all white people. Throughout my research paper I hope to cover certain aspects of African American heritage. Aspects such as blacks making up the largest minority group in the United States, although Mexican-Americans are rapidly changing that. The contributions blacks have provided to our country are immeasurable. Unfortunately though rather than recognizing these contributions, white America would rather focus on oppressing and degrading these people. As a consequence American

Slavery began in the late 16th century to early 18th century. Africans were brought to American colonies by white masters to come and work on their plantations in the South. They were treated harshly with no payments for all their hard work. In addition, they lived under harsh living conditions, and this led to their resistance against these harsh conditions. The racism towards the African Americans who were slaves was at its extreme as they did not have any rights; no civil nor political rights.

Music is an important aspect of every society. Music can tell stories, release emotions, build bridges and break down barriers, but above all music is entertaining. There are various forms of music but not many have as rich a history as gospel music. The importance of gospel music has been relevant in American music for more than a century and its importance to society is still relevant to this day (See Appendix A). Gospel music helped slaves escape to freedom and paved the way for other styles of music. It promotes a spirit of hope and provided an outlet to worship God. So how exactly has Gospel music impacted today’s society?

Charlie Pride did it in 1971. Darius Rucker did it in 2009. That’s it. Two black men, spanning thirty-eight years, are the only black artists to win a Country Music Association Award. With country music rooted in bluegrass and rhythm and blues, why aren’t there more black country music stars? When considering the roots of country music, and how closely related country is to blues, bluegrass and honky tonk music, an examination of what happened to all the black musicians seems warranted, no? This paper examines the dearth of black artists in country music and the careers of one of the few black artists who has had commercial success in this genre of music.

African American religious music is the foundation of all contemporary forms of so called “black music.” African American religious music has been a fundamental part of the black experience in this country. This common staple of the African American experience can be traced back to the cruel system of slavery. It then evolved into what we refer to today as gospel music. The goal of this paper is to answer three main questions. What are the origins of African American religious music? How did this musical expression develop into a secular form of music? What is the future of African American religious music? These questions will be answered through factual research of African American traditions, artists, and various other sources.

The African Methodist Episcopal Church also known as the AME Church, represents a long history of people going from struggles to success, from embarrassment to pride, from slaves to free. It is my intention to prove that the name African Methodist Episcopal represents equality and freedom to worship God, no matter what color skin a person was blessed to be born with. The thesis is this: While both Whites and Africans believed in the worship of God, whites believed in the oppression of the Africans’ freedom to serve God in their own way, blacks defended their own right to worship by the development of their own church. According to Andrew White, a well- known author for the AME denomination, “The word African means that our church was

Gospel music emerged during the twentieth century following the Great Migration of African American towards the north. Influenced by blues, gospel music is a religious genre. The use of gospel music is typically during religious practices, ceremonial purposes, pleasure and entertainment. During the Great Migration, two denominations followed by African Americans, Black Baptist and Methodists.

The songs were developed to reduce the level of boredom and increase production, these songs created a sense of familiarity and togetherness among workers. The African American work songs were created during the slave era in the seventeenth century; many had their origin in traditions of Africa and were sung to remind them of home or ordered by their masters to boost morale and keep slaves working. They have also been seen as means of endurance, expressing of anger and frustration via verbal signals. Some aspects like call and response were said to be rooted in African tradition, where a leader could sing a verse and be repeated by the greater mass. This eventually led to spirituality development which acted as a basis for Christianity leading to modern day gospels and blues.

Rhythm and blues, also known today as “R & B”, has been one of the most influential genres of music within the African American Culture, and has evolved over many decades in style and sound. Emerging in the late 1940's rhythm and blues, sometimes called jump blues, became dominant black popular music during and after WWII. Rhythm and blues artists often sung about love, relationships, life troubles, and sometimes focused on segregation and race struggles. Rhythm and blues helped embody what was unique about black American culture and validate it as something distinctive and valuable.

As Gospel music has a complex and diversified history, there are several forms of the genre, many of which intertwine with Soul (Gospel’s secular counterpart), Blues and Jazz. Consequently, although adaptable and broadly-defined, Gospel’s all-embracing musical lesson of spiritual contemplation and persistence, has always been a constant reminder for its enthusiasts.

Music helps to conserve and promote the most prized possession of human civilization: religion, culture and tradition. Each community has its distinct music through which it can display its culture and tradition. For example though dāpā and gospels both are religious and devotional songs they introduce us to two distinctly different cultures. Dāpā is a religious Newari music that praises Nāsadya, the local god of music and dance. On the other hand, gospels are highly emotional evangelic vocal music that originated from the African-American Christian community in the