History and Key Performers of Urban Contemporary Gospel: The 1980s and 1990s
Now, we'll look more closely at gospel music from the 1980s through the 1990s. With the name "urban contemporary gospel" instead of the tried-and-true stylistic label "rhythm and blues," this stylistic category occupies the same place and time as with secular music such as urban contemporary, also not labelled "rhythm and blues." Although professional trade journals such as Billboard never used the label "urban contemporary," it was apparent that Billboard's use of "Hot Black Singles" in 1982 was its way of attempting to use a label other than rhythm and blues. Rhythm and blues became popular just after WW II with hits by Louis Jordan (" Choo Choo Ch' Boogie "), Lavern Baker (" Twiddle-lee-De "), Big Joe Turner (" Shake Rattle and Roll"), Ruth Brown (" Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean "), Amos Milburn (" Chicken Shack Boogie"), and many others. However, the music of secular artists such as Whitney Houston, Luther Vandross, Anita Baker, Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, Lionel Richie, Jodie Whatley, Bobby Brown, The Pointer Sisters, Billie Ocean, and many others was distinctly different than earlier rhythm and blues.
Earlier rhythm and blues music characteristics included boogie-woogie rhythm, the twelve-bar blues progression, a predictable saxophone solo somewhere in the song, and the jump band instrumentation that included saxophone and trumpet and rhythm section (piano, bass, and drums) as discussed in lesson 19. However, these features were no longer typical of the 1980s rhythm and blues that included varied rhythmic patterns such as the standard 4/4 meter as in the song " Tonight I Celebrate My Love " (1983) by Peabo and Roberta Flack (and the boogie-woogie rhythm was never used in this period) varied harmonic progressions organized in eight-bar progressions as in the song " Just Once " (1981) by James Ingram (and the twelve-bar progression was never used in this period); varied instrumental and often brief solos such as saxophone (at 03:00) as in " Baby Come To Me " (1989) by Regina Belle and guitar (at 02:47) as in the song " Hello " (1983) by Lionel Richie; and band types such as rhythm section with orchestra as in " I Have Nothing " (1993) by Whitney Houston. Consequently, "urban contemporary" became the label often applied to these and other artists' music.
