A brief history of Gospel music

The history of Gospel is predated by its African roots, in the traditions of indigenous African people, with songs of praise, worship and testimony to cultural gods and deity.

The earliest coming-together of a Christian message interpreted into black music history was through the incidence of the transatlantic slave trade - the movement of African people from their customary faiths into an interpretation of Christianity.

The first incarnations of Gospel music were in the three phases of Negro spirituals: work songs, jubilees and social Gospel. Work songs came into being pre-1867. They were songs and chant composed by the slaves and sung largely outside church, in the cotton fields and plantations. These songs drew from Biblical imagery as inspiration through the hardships of slavery but also as coded songs of hope and freedom.

Jubilees were similar to work songs but sung in church as slaves began to embrace Christian forms of worship. They were ‘call and response’ style hymns and developed harmony as different parts sung as a group.

The struggle for civil rights and the tangible problems of segregation and inequality inspired a new brand of socially aware Gospel music in the mid-1920s and through to the 1960s. These songs integrated social messages with scripture references. Gospel music divided into church-based worship songs on one side and music by Christians with more of a secular social conscience on the other.

The term ‘Gospel’ is attributed to Thomas A. Dorsey in the 1930s. Dorsey was a former bluesman who went on to write some of the most enduring standards of Gospel music. Dorsey’s songs inspired a number of Gospel and Southern American artists, including Elvis Presley. The Gospel music of the civil rights era, often referred to as the Black Gospel period, defined Gospel’s richest heritage with artists like Mahalia Jackson, The Clara Ward Singers, Dorothy Love Coates, The Caravans, The Dixie Hummingbirds, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, The Blind Boys of Alabama and The Edwin Hawkins Singers.