Definition of Gospel (music)
Miscellanea / / July 04, 2021
By Florencia Ucha, in Oct. 2008
The musicGospel also known as spiritual or evangelical music It could not have had its origin in any other field than the religious, more precisely, arises in the African-American churches of the eighteenth century, but only became popular, arousing the interest of the public, in the year 1930.
Actually the term that originally designated it was god spell, which translated means call of God and it was decided to name it this way because its letters were nothing other than a invitation to know God and reflect the values that proposes the religion Christian.
Although its origin, as I was saying, is found in the African-American community, it is not possible to reduce the style musical only to this since a good part of the white community, to name it in some way, mostly white southern singers, also usually interpret it.
Surely this ID that exists in the collective unconscious of people, of identify gospel music with the black race, also has to do with that normally in the media of
communication or in the movie theater she has exclusively associated it with blacks.When in the United States the differences between whites and blacks were insurmountable, there was a separation between churches and hence the separation of gospel into two branches: the white and the black.. However, in recent years, this barrier has been crossed by many and it is common for artists from one to perform songs from the other. What's more, many artists have even decided to transcend the original religious context and perform in nightclubs.
What makes Gospel recognizable and without a doubt is its trademark and registered trademark is the dominant use of harmonic chorusess, although of course, experimentation has also given rise to new subgenres such as black gospel, reggae gospel and modern gospel.
Among the most prominent artists of this musical trend are: Mahalia Jackson, Golden Gate Quartet, Clara Ward, Rosetta Tharpe and Al Green.