Gospel Music Gospel music began in the cotton fields of the Old South. It originated from slaves singing freedom songs about Jesus and has integrated into today's music. Gospel music is a standard version of sanctified music that encouraged Christian beliefs and stimulated the practice of Christian ethical principles, both in the context of worship services and as musical entertainment. Gospel music began with Thomas A. Dorsey, the father of gospel music. Gospel, meaning “good news,” was given its name because of the Old Testament books with the gospels.1 Gospel music is mostly American music reflected by meaningful songs. Gospel music was created as a type of Christian worship and spiritual singing associated with African American worship1. Performed by soloists, choirs and groups with voices and harmony within churches. There are two main types of gospel music: Urban gospel, which began around 1899, has its roots primarily in spiritual songs sung by Southern slaves around the 18th and 19th centuries, associated with black churches. Southern Gospel began around 1910 and is associated with white churches. While throughout the history of gospel music there are now different types of gospel music such as Christian country, contemporary Christian, hip-hop, traditional and progressive southern gospel. . “Recent studies by Professor Willie Ruff, an African-American ethnomusicologist at Yale University, conclude that African-American gospel singing was actually encouraged by the Scottish Gaelic-speaking settlers of North Uis.” , African American singing adopted the call-and-response which is believed to be the first type of collective singing.2 The United States has an... middle of paper... impressive measure, the gospel song is predicted to have a chorus and often a more accentuated rhythm. The structure of the piece often includes elements such as polyphonic melisma and a varied range of dynamics. Gospel music usually has rhythms related to rock and roll rather than modern holy music. This is an additional effect evident in the strong backbeat rhythms of modern rhythm and blues. Furthermore, the plots of each piece of music are actually similar. Modern rhythm and blues gives rise to a highly polyphonic sound related to gospel, this means that there are multiple synchronized melodies. As for harmony, major seventh chords and complex vocal accompaniments were carried over to rhythm and blues styles. Works Cited3www.visitdetroit.com/ gospel2Afgen: The Story of the Gospel4EineArticles.com/?expert=Francis_Kingman2Afgen: The Story of the Gospel