Gospel Music
Gospel music consists of large groups of people doing vocals, often in a polyphonic
manner. Sometimes there is a lead singer in the vocal group. In accompaniment with the vocals is normally piano/organ playing, electric guitar playing, clapping, and/or tambourine shaking.
Gospel music was founded in 1870, coming from hymns and melodies of music that was
popular at the time. At that time it was popular only with Caucasians, and therefore it was mainly a Caucasian style. At this time, the elements of today's gospel music had not come in. It was mostly singing. As for the text of the music, it would most oftenly be about salvation and the conversion to the Christian religion.
It was about 1930 when the African American version of gospel music arose. It was based on hymns, much like the Caucasian style of gospel music, but it had elements of African American styles. This was when the elements of gospel music that we know now came in to being. The songs would often break out into dance, due to the liveliness of the music.
Today, there still remains a line between the Caucasian and the African American style of gospel music. But the two styles have shared elements and have allowed each other to influence each other's styles.
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