The Influence of Gospel Music Essay

A cultural value that is important and must be taken to account is Direct vs. Indirect. I say this because how you communicate with some will greatly affect how much they retain of listen to. In this matter, Drew has expressed that he feels Christians are aggressive and history has shown their moral compass lacks right vs wrong and good and bad. Knowing this I would want to work around being direct and indirect when communicating with him. I would never want to be to direct and push him away nor would I want to be so indirect that it seems as if I’m walking on egg shells. In the end, how I communicate to him will greatly impact if he listens or shuts me out.

While work songs dealt only with their daily life, spirituals were inspired by the message of Jesus Christ and his Good News (Gospel) of the Bible, “You can be saved”. They are different from hymns and psalms, because they were a way of sharing the hard condition of being a slave. Many slaves in town and in plantations tried to run to a “free country”, that they called “my home” or “Sweet Canaan, the Promised Land”. This country was on the Northern side of Ohio River, that they called “Jordan”. Some negro spirituals refer to the Underground Railroad, an organization for helping slaves to run away.

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.

Every human being has a worldview whether they are aware of it or not. Although the notion of a worldview might appear basic in nature, the word itself simply meaning how one views the world around them, worldviews are much more complex and far reaching. A worldviews development occurs over the course of a lifetime, shaped by the complex and unique experiences of an individual and the sum of family traditions, religious beliefs and cultural histories. It is an all-encompassing interpretation of reality that plays a central and defining role in our attitudes and concepts about life. While worldviews are formed based on the answers to fundamental questions about human existence, they simultaneously shape

The blues emerged as a distinct African-American musical form in the early twentieth century. It typically employed a twelve-bar framework and three-lined stanzas; its roots are based in early African-American songs, such as field hollers and work songs, and generally have a melancholy mood. The blues can be divided into many sub-genres, including Classical, Country, and Urban. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the careers of two of Classical blues most influential and legendary singers: Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith.

“When first entering in America, British folk music was distinguished by three-chord tunes, sparse instrumentation (with some fiddlers), mostly male performers, improvisation, the singers’ sporadic shouts (Scottish “yips”), Christian themes served up in hundreds of hymns, and a secular collection of songs that told stories, generally about love and lost love, using metaphor and symbol to tell those stories” (Allen 101). By the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, British music changed and became Americanized. Vocal harmonizing slowly evolved, and fiddlers were accompanied by those who played banjo, an African American opening. “Tambourines and “bones” (tapping out rhythms using pork rib bones) were a minstrel show contribution” (Allen 102). When African Americans were forced into slavery and brought to North America in the 1600s, they brought their own musical traditions and sounds. Slaves who were on the Mississippi River Valley delta soil developed what will later be introduced as blues music. On the plantations, slaves greatly changed British American hymn singing. They took non-religious British American songs and turned it into their own forms of music that followed their culture and taste of music. Blues emerged in the early twentieth century at the same time country music became settled from its folk roots. Blues music talked about the indifferences African American slaves were going through at that time. “The blues voiced human

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

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?

Blues began in the south and slowly made its way into the great cities of the North. As

Hebrews 1:2-3 says, “But in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven” (NIV). In an article in The Christian Crier, author Jack Wellman gives a great description of Jesus.

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 first group of African Americans brought to America came from a mixture of backgrounds with a lot of recognizable differences that changes musical traditions from the soulful sobs of sable street merchants in the 18 hundreds in Philadelphia to the contagious movement to the sound of Motown. African American music has been heard in all of America

Gospel music is an elegant form of worship. It has been used to speak out against oppression and to advocate for freedom and equality for all. Gospel Music is exemplary of music being used to change the world. Gospel music and the various artists associated with it have had a monumental impact on the face of our

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.

For centuries, Gospel music has influenced and promoted African-American social, moral and ethical values, playing an imperative role in modelling their past and future. Originating from the hardships of slavery and the strength of Christian worship, Gospel music has adapted to musical tastes through the development of a number of sub-genres, while retaining its moral and spiritual framework. Throughout its musical history, Gospel music has had a profound and predominant influence on its devotees and followers. During the turbulent years of the American Civil Rights Movement, Gospel music played a vital role in building the foundations of stability and