It's all about the music !
Hi peeps,
Autumn is upon us here in the UK and the bright summer nights have already begun drawing in , I’m put in mind of cold dark mornings.
When I was younger I used to loathe having to leave the house in such unfriendly conditions, yet somehow this year I am actually looking forward to the inevitable crisping of leaves on the trees and biting of the cold wind upon my ears and nose of a morning. With these “cosy” thoughts now sublimely placed in your minds, we’ll stay with warmth and comfort as I ease subtly into one of the many debate topics surrounding Gospel music. I would be interested to have comments on this topic, seeing everyone and their father seems to have an opinion, on whether its right or wrong for contemporary artists to even attempt to “do” Gospel.
Back in the 1950s there was a popular young gospel singer with an incredible voice named Sam Cooke. He sang lead with one of the most popular groups on the gospel circuit, the Soul Stirrers . When, Cooke decided to record and perform outside of the gospel realm he found himself heavily criticized by the church folks. In any event, Sam Cooke was hurt, but not hurt enough to change his plans for a move into R&B and pop. Much more recently, Michelle Williams, her of Destiny’s Child fame, made one gospel album (“Heart to Yours”) and then another (“Do You Know?”). Some “born again” types had issues with it saying How dare she be in “that group” and sing gospel too?
Well, in my mind they are two different things. And besides, even though Destiny’s Child could be sexy (nothing wrong with that), they were never outwardly crude or vulgar, not that I can remember. They never “showed anything” either, well nothing more than ones imagination could cope with anyway. The self-righteous judgments of these critics stem from some people believing they somehow speak for the Creator of the Universe, without having any idea what the artist has in their heart and/or what their relationship with God is.
DENIECE WILLIAMS can relate to Williams’ situation. The lady who had a long string of R&B and pop hits, including “Free,” “It’s Gonna Take a Miracle,” “Too Much, Too Little, Too Late” (with Johnny Mathis) and “Let’s Hear It For the Boy,” began making gospel albums (“So Glad I Know,” “This Is My Song,” etc.) alongside her secular releases. (She won four gospel Grammy Awards.) Certain eyebrows were raised, but Williams didn’t let that bother her because she knew no one had the right to question her spirituality.
Interestingly, one of the things that famed choir director/songwriter Mattie Moss Clark (mother of the Clark Sisters) said before her passing was, “Don’t let the rap music get into the church.” (Well, it’s in there, in the form of a genre called holy hip-hop.)
The artist who completely broke down the barriers, and took the criticism in stride, is Kirk Franklin. His contemporary R&B approach to gospel music, complete with singers who look like they could be “Soul Train” dancers, reached its zenith in 1997 with “Stomp,” featuring completely different words to the track from Funkadelic’s classic “One Nation Under a Groove.”
To put the icing on the “Stomp” cake, Franklin added a guest rap from Cheryl “Salt” Wray from the hitmaking rap group Salt-N-Pepa. As an international superstar Kirk Franklin said to those who criticized him, “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!
Contemporary gospel is so prevalent today — Mary Mary, J Ross, Vickie Winans, Fred Hammond, Trin-i-Tee 5:7, Kierra “Kiki” Sheard, and so on that the criticism from the traditionalists has almost had no choice but to subside. Secular artists making gospel albums is and I guess always will be frowned on by a small number of staunch “church” folk. Having said that with dancehall reggae artists now crossing over into the realms of gospel , they may have to start re-evaluating their values on the topic.
After all isn’t the essence of Gospel music meant to be about personal experience and the understanding of our relationship to God and nature, not about how one looks on the outside or how one chooses to portray lyrically the life one relates to? And as I’ll prove to you in my next article, it matters not what genre an artist originates from , in my mind its more about the adage “he (or she) who knows it feels it” . Folks be good to one another , I’ll see y’all real soon with an introduction to dancehall gospel, that will blow your mind away. One Universal Love Ms.P M
When I was younger I used to loathe having to leave the house in such unfriendly conditions, yet somehow this year I am actually looking forward to the inevitable crisping of leaves on the trees and biting of the cold wind upon my ears and nose of a morning. With these “cosy” thoughts now sublimely placed in your minds, we’ll stay with warmth and comfort as I ease subtly into one of the many debate topics surrounding Gospel music. I would be interested to have comments on this topic, seeing everyone and their father seems to have an opinion, on whether its right or wrong for contemporary artists to even attempt to “do” Gospel.
Back in the 1950s there was a popular young gospel singer with an incredible voice named Sam Cooke. He sang lead with one of the most popular groups on the gospel circuit, the Soul Stirrers . When, Cooke decided to record and perform outside of the gospel realm he found himself heavily criticized by the church folks. In any event, Sam Cooke was hurt, but not hurt enough to change his plans for a move into R&B and pop. Much more recently, Michelle Williams, her of Destiny’s Child fame, made one gospel album (“Heart to Yours”) and then another (“Do You Know?”). Some “born again” types had issues with it saying How dare she be in “that group” and sing gospel too?
Well, in my mind they are two different things. And besides, even though Destiny’s Child could be sexy (nothing wrong with that), they were never outwardly crude or vulgar, not that I can remember. They never “showed anything” either, well nothing more than ones imagination could cope with anyway. The self-righteous judgments of these critics stem from some people believing they somehow speak for the Creator of the Universe, without having any idea what the artist has in their heart and/or what their relationship with God is.
DENIECE WILLIAMS can relate to Williams’ situation. The lady who had a long string of R&B and pop hits, including “Free,” “It’s Gonna Take a Miracle,” “Too Much, Too Little, Too Late” (with Johnny Mathis) and “Let’s Hear It For the Boy,” began making gospel albums (“So Glad I Know,” “This Is My Song,” etc.) alongside her secular releases. (She won four gospel Grammy Awards.) Certain eyebrows were raised, but Williams didn’t let that bother her because she knew no one had the right to question her spirituality.
Interestingly, one of the things that famed choir director/songwriter Mattie Moss Clark (mother of the Clark Sisters) said before her passing was, “Don’t let the rap music get into the church.” (Well, it’s in there, in the form of a genre called holy hip-hop.)
The artist who completely broke down the barriers, and took the criticism in stride, is Kirk Franklin. His contemporary R&B approach to gospel music, complete with singers who look like they could be “Soul Train” dancers, reached its zenith in 1997 with “Stomp,” featuring completely different words to the track from Funkadelic’s classic “One Nation Under a Groove.”
To put the icing on the “Stomp” cake, Franklin added a guest rap from Cheryl “Salt” Wray from the hitmaking rap group Salt-N-Pepa. As an international superstar Kirk Franklin said to those who criticized him, “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!
Contemporary gospel is so prevalent today — Mary Mary, J Ross, Vickie Winans, Fred Hammond, Trin-i-Tee 5:7, Kierra “Kiki” Sheard, and so on that the criticism from the traditionalists has almost had no choice but to subside. Secular artists making gospel albums is and I guess always will be frowned on by a small number of staunch “church” folk. Having said that with dancehall reggae artists now crossing over into the realms of gospel , they may have to start re-evaluating their values on the topic.
After all isn’t the essence of Gospel music meant to be about personal experience and the understanding of our relationship to God and nature, not about how one looks on the outside or how one chooses to portray lyrically the life one relates to? And as I’ll prove to you in my next article, it matters not what genre an artist originates from , in my mind its more about the adage “he (or she) who knows it feels it” . Folks be good to one another , I’ll see y’all real soon with an introduction to dancehall gospel, that will blow your mind away. One Universal Love Ms.P M
THE MOST AMAZING NATURAL SUPPLEMENT AVAILABLE. VISIT THEIR WEBSITE BY CLICKING THE PICTURE OF THE " D-TOX " PRODUCT. SEE WHY THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE DON'T WANT TO BE WITHOUT IT.
Copyright(c.)2008 kanbllc
All Rights Reserved
dgtdamngoodtunes@yahoo.com
see us at MySpace :
www.myspace.com/dgtdamngoodtunes
