The Globalization of Gospel Music 1
Distinguished Professor Mellonee Burnim has done fieldwork and led workshops on African American religious music across the United States. In her essay titled "Tropes of Continuity and Disjuncture in the Globalization of Gospel Music," she states that gospel music is "a genre that generates appeal via its sonic dimensions-timbre, melodic treatment, rhythm, and form-all of which are strongly rooted in historically African American cultural practices that date back to the period of slavery, at the same time gospel music is a profoundly Christian expression, which in many ways transcends boundaries of denomination, race, social class, and even national identity" (Reily et al. 2016, 470). In his essay "There is Power: Contemporizing Old Music Traditions for New Gospel Audiences in Kenya," Jean Ngoya Kidula would add to Burnim's lists above "generational lines and cultural positions" (Kidula 2010, n.p.).
Burnim comes to this conclusion by citing an account of the gospel singer Shirley Caesar. She, and many other notable gospel artists, were in attendance to minister in song along at a weeklong "One Nation Under God" Gospel Music Festival held in Jerusalem in 1983. On her way to the festival venue, she was cautioned by her taxicab driver "to avoid explicit references to Jesus while in Jerusalem [and] initially felt compelled to follow his directives." Mellonee Burnim presents Shirley Caesar's account of her experience:
Our first song was No Charge.
And the Israelis thoroughly enjoyed that selection. When I began singing Miracle Worker,
I realized that in order to sing this song I would have to call the name of Jesus, loud and long. When I came to the place in the song where I call upon the name of Jesus instead of saying Jesus, I initially tried to substitute by shouting out the words power and holy, over and over again. But the Holy Spirit within me said, if you're ashamed to own Me before these people in Israel, then I'll be ashamed to own you before my Father in heaven.
Right then, I threw my head back and began to shout as loud as I could, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus!
I didn't stop calling the name of Jesus, I held the microphone out toward the audience, and they shouted His name with me. The words of the cab driver were no longer ringing in my ear. Instead, all I could hear was, There is power in the name of Jesus.
I'll never forget the thrill of hearing those thousands of Jews call the name of Jesus. Who would have thought that Jews in Jerusalem would actually proclaim the name of Jesus! I love it when the Holy Spirit does the unexpected. There was absolutely no way of my knowing when I stepped on stage that such a phenomenal occurrence would take place.
(Caesar 1998, 198-199 as quoted in Reily et al. 2016, 470)