
The Twenty-First Century 1
Gospel artists continue to evolve in their music creativity into the twenty-first century. In addition to contemporary gospel, labels have added Christian rap, Christian hip-hop contemporary, contemporary Christian music (CCM), gospel hip-hop, gospel rap, hip-hop church, and holy hip-hop. There is a fine line between these labels because their products are very similar concerning speaking or "rapping" and singing evangelical lyrics accompanied by some form of hip-hop music. As happened in the early 1920s and beyond, contemporary gospel artists incorporate secular music styles, such as hip-hop, to reach a wider audience.
Many contemporary gospel artists have continued their music career well into the new millennia. Here is Yolanda Adams's 2005 popular song "Victory."

Yolanda Adams - Victory
The same year, Mary Mary scored three songs that became popular with all audiences, sacred and secular, with their album of the same name. The song " Yesterday" has clear influences of blues harmonies and a big band jazz orchestration, all performed in the 6/8 meter. What is most striking about this song is Mary Mary's vocal virtuosity. Like other gospel singers such as Mahalia Jackson, Sister Shirley Caesar, and Aretha Franklin before them, Mary Mary uses techniques such as full-throated and natural voice production, crescendos and diminuendos, accents, and syncopation for dramatic effect. The fast, energetic song " The Real Party (Trevon's Birthday) " is filled with sounds of a celebratory event, but its meaning focuses on as the lyrics state, "Make some noise move your feet and hands while you've got a chance. You ought to get up and give God all you can." Their video "Heaven" has sections similar to the secular song " Want Ads" by Honey Cone from an instrumental point of view.

Mary Mary - Heaven (Music Video) [ 00:00-00:00 ]