History and Key Performers of Urban Contemporary Gospel: The Late 1960s to 1970s 1
Let's look at the early years of contemporary gospel. Even though "contemporary gospel covers a wide period of music styles, for instance, soul music of the 1960s and today's hip-hop some fifty years later, there are nevertheless stylistic similarities within this period that draw them together. In general, this lies within the level of acceptability with respect to more flexibility in lyrical poetic phraseology, melodic and harmonic embellishments, and instrumental accompaniment" (Breckenridge 2016, 416). This basically implies performers are allowed freedom when it comes to creative lyrics, singing styles, and a creative instrumental accompaniment. However, without question, the voice, as with all other periods of Black gospel music, is preeminent. We will discuss that in detail as we examine selected songs.
Contemporary Christian rapper KJ-52
As mentioned above, contemporary gospel covers a broader period than the early (the 1920s to 1940s) and golden age (1940s to late 1960s) of gospel music. While only twenty years denote the duration of the previous two periods, contemporary gospel, so far, covers a little over fifty years of music. Furthermore, the contemporary gospel also encompasses other stylistic labels/styles in later years, namely urban contemporary gospel and holy hip-hop, as seen in Figure 22.1 below. In turn, holy hip-hop has other labels such as Christian rap, hip-hop gospel/gospel hip-hop, or just plain hip-hop. These styles will be covered later in this lesson.
