Black gospel music grew from obscure nineteenth-century beginnings
to become the leading style of sacred music in black American
communities after World War II. Jerma A. Jackson traces the music's
unique history, profiling the careers of several
singers--particularly Sister Rosetta Tharpe--and demonstrating the
important role women played in popularizing gospel.
Female gospel singers initially developed their musical
abilities in churches where gospel prevailed as a mode of worship.
Few, however, stayed exclusively in the religious realm. As
recordings and sheet music pushed gospel into the commercial arena,
gospel began to develop a life beyond the church, spreading first
among a broad spectrum of African Americans and then to white
middle-class audiences. Retail outlets, recording companies, and
booking agencies turned gospel into big business, and local church
singers emerged as national and international celebrities. Amid
these changes, the music acquired increasing significance as a
source of black identity.
These successes, however, generated fierce controversy. As
gospel gained public visibility and broad commercial appeal,
debates broke out over the meaning of the music and its message,
raising questions about the virtues of commercialism and material
values, the contours of racial identity, and the nature of the
sacred. Jackson engages these debates to explore how race, faith,
and identity became central questions in twentieth-century African
American life.
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