Black gospel
Black gospel music is primarily a marketing term used to help potential buyers distinguish it from other forms of Christian music, such as contemporary Christian music or Christian rock and Southern gospel (a merger of barbershop quartet style harmony and country instrumentation, see also
Southern Gospel Music Association), which have similar lyrical form but very different musical styling.
'Black' gospel is intended to be descriptive rather than pejorative, since the majority of its performers are African-American, although at times it may appear to have a racist tinge in cases where performers who are of other races (
Jon Gibson is one example) may not be labelled black gospel though his music has more in common stylistically with someone like Edwin Hawkins than Michael W. Smith. Whilst the majority of performers of this genre of
Gospel Music are African-Americans it is certainly not a style of music exclusive to any racial group or region of the world today. Indeed in Australia choirs of predominantly Australian-born singers with a largely
Anglo-Celtic background, such as
The Elementals and
Jonah & The Whalers have embraced this style of
Gospel Music.
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Edwin Hawkinsthis is the best site amen
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Black Gospel Music*
Black Gospel Music from gospel writers
