Urban contemporary gospel
Younger audiences of Gospel music are attracted to music with rhythm and a groove and an urban contemporary sound. Gospel singers and siblings, BeBe (Benjamin) and CeCe (Cecilia) Winans and groups like Take 6 delivered music to their taste one album after another. Modern gospel songs are written in the subgenre of either praise or worship. The former being faster in tempo, stronger and louder, the latter being slower in tempo and more subtle so the message may be taken in.
Shirley Caesar replies, "God uses any kind of vehicle. He chooses to draw men unto Him," Caesar said. "What has kept me going is that I try to sing about current events: drugs, black on black crime, a lot of hurting women who have been abused, young girls who have had children out of wedlock. I want to let them know about Jesus so that they might just get up and straighten out their lives."
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Gospel's influences
Gospel artists, who had been influenced by pop music trends for years, had a major influence on early rhythm and blues artists, particularly the "bird groups" such as the Orioles, the Ravens and the Flamingos, who applied gospel quartets' a cappella techniques to pop songs in the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s. Individual gospel artists, such as Sam Cooke, and secular artists who borrowed heavily from gospel, such as Ray Charles, James Brown, and James Booker, had an even greater impact later in the 1950s, helping to create soul music by bringing even more gospel to rhythm and blues. Elvis Presley was less known for his gospel but he was a gospel artist. His gospel favorites were "Why me Lord," How Great Thou Art, and "You'll never walk alone."
Many of the most prominent soul artists, such as Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, Wilson Pickett and Al Green, had roots in the church and gospel music and brought with them much of the vocal styles of artists such as Clara Ward and Julius Cheeks. During the 70's artist like Edwin Hawkins with the 1969 hit "O Happy Day," and Andre Crouch's hit" Take me Back" were big inspirations on Gospel Music. Secular songwriters often appropriated gospel songs, such as the Pilgrim Travelers' song "I've Got A New Home," or the Doc Pomus song Ray Charles turned into a hit "Lonely Avenue," or "Stand By Me," which Ben E. King and Leiber and Stoller adapted from a well-known gospel song, or Marvin Gaye's "Can I Get A Witness," which reworks traditional gospel catchphrases. In other cases secular musicians did the opposite, attaching phrases and titles from the gospel tradition to secular songs to create soul hits such as "Come See About Me" for the Supremes and "99 1/2 Won't Do" for Wilson Pickett.
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Representative songwriters and artists
Mother Willie Mae Ford Smith
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External links
| This article is a part in a series on Gospel music |
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Roots and Beginnings
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Genres and Subgenres
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Related Music Genres
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Associations and Groups
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Gospel Music Awards
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Related WikiProjects
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| Category • Musicians See also: Christianity: Portal • Category Christian music: Portal • Category |
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- Historical references
- Shall We Gather at the River, a collection of African American Christian music; made available for public use by the State Archives of Florida
- Huge Collection of Gospel Lyrics Gospel Music Lyrics,
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See also
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