Gospel, The Soul of
the Popular Music Industry:
An Auto-Ethnography

Abstract
For decades, Gospel music has heavily influenced the popular music field including genres such as Jazz, Blues, and Rock & Roll. Although certain flashy elements of the genre are widely sought after, the roots of Gospel music tend to be under-acknowledged and neglected in the Pop music industry today. A glance at the music industry today will show that many successful performers, arrangers, and songwriters come from a background of Gospel music. This begs the question: If musicians raised in a Gospel music setting exhibit such valuable skills for the industry, then why is such training not as equally valued as more European styles of music training? 

Gospel music has deeply influenced my songwriting with its uses of complex musicality as well as its incredible literary uses in its lyricism. While I have a history in classical music training, I find that it is my Gospel music upbringing that has given me many of the skills necessary to write, arrange, and perform music with much versatility and innovation.

This auto-ethnography seeks to assess the ways in which Gospel music has been historically undervalued for its cultural and musical influence;
as well as examine the ways in which an upbringing in Gospel music, particularly in a Black church setting, creates generations of musicians who continue to populate the wider music industry with such training.

Introduction

Mechanicsville, Virginia is about as rural and remote as it sounds. It is approximately thirty minutes north of the state capital, Richmond, and is home to my entire family. Like many southern families in the United States, church time is family time. My upbringing was very centered around our Christian faith and I spent many days within the walls of a small Black church in our community, Life-Line for Jesus. I went to weekly Sunday services as well as mid-week Bible studies, choir rehearsals, youth group meetings, and pretty much any church event that I was qualified for.

Around the age of five, I remember sitting around at a choir rehearsal and hearing the choir director attempt to teach the altos their notes. I could hear where they were singing it incorrectly so I started singing what I heard from the choir director. After hearing this, the director had me join. My sister and I were known for being the powerhouse soprano section even at our young age. We used to replicate the songs we learned in choir rehearsals and sing them at home. This started with the songs we learned in church but then we found that we were able to do this with songs on the radio or in movies. We would use a cassette tape recorder to fill in the other harmonies since it was only the two of us. I loved to sing and the church choir became a huge part of my life. These years were the genesis of my love for songwriting.

Today, I aspire to be a collaborative songwriter for many musical artists across multiple genres. With my studies in composition, I aim to work with artists, publishers, and other songwriters in the American Pop music field solely with the purpose of writing songs, not performing them. I’ve compiled a small collection of songs I’ve written or co-written. These songs have been performed by other artists with my direction. They have been interspersed within this essay along with personal accounts of their creation.

In this essay, I will attempt to analyze, through an academic lens, my career trajectory in association with Gospel music learned in a Black Church environment. Much of this experience is taken for granted to be universal among Black artists, but is rarely spoken about in academic settings. From an autoethnographic context, I will reflect on these experiences. Along with first-hand research and examination, I will also examine literature that seeks to define the characteristics found in Gospel music and note how these characteristics are applied to the larger music industry today.

Oral and aural tradition in the Black Church

If I were to sum up my experience of learning music while growing up in a Black church, I would say that it’s all about the ability to learn by ear. It is no secret that much of African-American culture was passed down orally due to the years of inability to read and write during the transatlantic slave trade. While oral tradition became essential to the passing down of our culture through many generations, one could argue that aural tradition did the same. “As a relatively new manifestation of a long historical tradition of religious music, black gospel music has drawn upon such source music as spirituals, ring shouts, jubilees, chants, and camp meeting songs which themselves had numerous retentions of Africanisms.” (Afro-American Gospel Music: A Crystallization of the Black Aesthetic, Williams-Jones, 1975)

After being ripped away from the only family, language, culture, and home that my ancestors knew, these sources and “retentions of Africanisms” that Williams-Jones speaks of could only persist through these core gifts being oral and aural tradition. Williams-Jones adds that “Black gospel music is one of the new seminal genres of black culture which continually maintains its self-identity while it nourishes and enrichens the mainstream of the world’s cultural sources.” (Williams-Jones, 1975) Although this was stated in 1975, I would maintain that this statement is indeed true. Gospel music continues to be a soulful influence for other genres as it has for decades. In today’s modern music, we find traces of Gospel expression all throughout.

Early in this discussion with Erin, we recognized the common experience of singing this song in our churches as children. It is interesting to note that neither of us preferred the original version of the song by Andrae Crouch. There is a special phenomenon that happens when a congregation takes on a song and makes it their own. The innovation that Gospel musicians develop begins on a typical Sunday morning when a group of people come together once again to celebrate in worship. In this same way, just about any traditional hymn will sound different from the hymnal version when being sung in a Black church. This is where the real training happens.

Formative years in a Black Church setting

When one is raised in this setting, they are likely attending a midweek rehearsal for maybe two hours, as well as a Sunday service, or performance if you will, of that same material. Let’s imagine a child taking a one hour piano lesson once a week. That child will have maybe two to four recitals a year. These hours would be more than doubled when learning to play an instrument under the leadership of a Gospel musician at a church.

This formula usually includes first, the child hearing and experiencing live music every week at a Sunday morning service. Then, let’s say they have a family member in the band or choir. They now experience the atmosphere of a musical rehearsal on a weekly basis. Then, once an interest is taken, that child will shadow someone on their instrument and have access to said instrument to begin practicing. Once this child begins playing/singing in service weekly, they are essentially participating in a weekly recital on their instrument. Based on the definition provided by James Bulley and Özden Şahin in their Practice Research reports in 2021, this process is, in essence, practice based research and that child would likely complete years of it before even completing grade school. (Practice Research, Bulley, Şahin, 2021)

Now, none of this is to say that all musicians steeped in Gospel music will be elite musical savants. Just like any pool of talent, some will rise to the top of the pack. However, I believe that this type of environment takes musicians with raw talent and creates musicians who are competent, proficient, and innovative. The hours spent studying other musicians in real time, as well as the hours spent practicing one’s instrument lead to such competency and proficiency. These hours also include settings in which a worship leader, choir director, or pastor may create something spontaneous that requires the ability to quickly adapt. Particularly in settings with less resources, this element is key. This is where the innovation truly begins.

Identifying characteristics of a Gospel sound

In a study of contemporary Gospel music from 1979, Horace Clarence Boyer identifies eight key Gospel singing attributes and techniques based on a performance of “Surely God is Able” by Clara Ward from the Ward Singers. The attributes include: vocal timbre, ‘Gospel’ vibrato, melodic ornamentation, ascending and descending passing tones (the bend, upper and lower neighbour tones) the gruppetto, the portamento, rhythmic improvisation, and textual interpolation. (“Contemporary Gospel Music.” The Black Perspective in Music, vol. 7, Boyer, 1979). 

As Erin and I spoke about “The Blood Will never lose its Power”’s ability to become its own entity through widespread repetition in the greater Black church, these characteristics noted by Boyer often lead to such; namely melodic ornamentation, rhythmic improvisation, and textual interpolation. As a collective of people sing and express a sentiment in congregation, a shift often begins to happen. A song becomes personalized and stylized to better suit that congregation. It is tough to say where the lines between customization and creation truly begin and end, however, this type of regular innovation all the more increases a musicians ability to perpetuate such.

In addition to this list of characteristics extrapolated by Horace Clarence Boyer, a different list of Gospel vocal techniques used in a performance of “Peace be Still” by James Cleveland have been extrapolated by Pearl Williams-Jones. Andrew Legg later refers to this writing, reinforcing these beliefs about the music industry in stating “Furthermore, researchers are beginning to now credit African American gospel music as being one of the key underpinning influences in the development of the juggernaught that has become contemporary popular music throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.” (A taxonomy of musical gesture in African American gospel music, Legg, 2010)

“Williams-Jones (1975) identifies the following six African American gospel vocal techniques that she extrapolated from a performance of Peace Be Still by James Cleveland. They are as follows: Moans, Grunts, Wails, Shouts, Gliding Pitches, Song Speech.” pg 105 (Legg, 2010)

I would add to this list the usage of vocal riffs and runs.

Finding characteristics of Gospel in Pop

These vocal techniques have been adopted into other musical styles that present themselves in our mainstream music industry today. It appears easy for the average listener to process these techniques as soulful without necessarily acknowledging the influence behind them. We expect to hear these soulful sounds from a Gospel singer so there seems to be more of an appeal when these sounds come from a less expected source. Artists like Adele, Ariana Grande, and Sam Smith are praised for such soulful sounds in the Pop music world. Listeners applaud them for stylistic choices that stem from these Gospel characteristics while the artists who popularized such sounds do not accrue nearly the same amount of recognition whether by popularity or music consumption.

I’d like to examine and analyze a popular song that heavily uses characteristics often found in Gospel music. John Mayer wrote both lyrics and music to “Gravity” which was released on his album “Continuum” in 2006. I’ve provided a link for reference followed by a link to my musical analysis.

Although Mayer appealed to a Pop audience at this time, this less-Pop sound was widely accepted, applauded, and awarded. The song uses a Blues harmonic structure, a melody based on a pentatonic scale, and lyrical themes that I would describe as themes of “hope and home” that are often found in Gospel music. Both his vocal and guitar performances display techniques aforementioned above such as moans and grunts, gliding pitches, and riffs and runs. It is evident that the song was written and performed using Gospel music influences.

Quite frankly, “Gravity” is a keenly polished, Blues song. While John Mayer has generally been identified as a Singer/Songwriter Pop artist, he speaks openly about his biggest influences including artists like B.B. King and other soulful sounding artists. B.B. King is a prime example of a musician who grew up singing and playing in his grandmother’s church and went on to use some of these sounds in other musical settings. It’s evident how much his sound has influenced generations of musicians after him. Like many other musicians from King’s time, this sound began in a Black church.

Early years and development in music

In elementary school I remember composing my first song about the planets so that I could remember them for a test. The melody began low “Mercury is rocky” then there was a small break filled with rhythmic hand claps. Next the melody ascended in small steps. “Venus is hot.” More claps here… “Earth is watery, Mars is dusty…” and so on. Without realizing, my love for songwriting was born. This was something that I did often, creating little songs and melodies about my favorite snacks or fun things I enjoyed. It wasn’t until my early teenage years that I began tinkering on a piano and writing worship songs to be sung in my local church.

I went to a High School with an excellent music program. We had a budget for multiple choirs, bands, orchestras, and even a music theory class for advanced students. I began learning to read music and it felt like I was putting language to what I’d been hearing all along. I soon learned to adapt my voice to the sound that my choir teacher wanted. This was a purely classical sound that called for a light head voice instead of the hefty chest voice that I used at church. This distinction between how I sang at church versus how I sang at school allowed my voice to feel like two different instruments to me.

I became good at mimicking the “school sound” and in my senior year, when my school did a “mock opera” with all of the music departments, I was given the solo in Habanera from Bizet’s “Carmen.” While this felt to me like I was just faking it, my choir teacher encouraged me to study classical voice in college. And so I did. I went on to Virginia Commonwealth University and this is where I began putting even more vocabulary to the sounds I had been hearing.

Although I could now proficiently read music, it was still always easier to memorize and identify certain sounds by ear. Once I’d finished my music theory requirements for vocalists, I continued on to take a Jazz music theory course where I was the only vocalist as well as the only woman. I’d never seriously studied Jazz music apart from easy listening. I found Jazz vocal stylings to be similar in some ways to Gospel vocal stylings and used some of the same techniques to mimic the sounds I heard in class. During that semester, my professor allowed me the opportunity to sing with the Jazz Band ensembles as a guest for some of their engagements.

In my other University classes, I quickly recognized that I was studying with some brilliant classical musicians. I knew singers who could sight read circles around me and musicians who showed incredible proficiency on their instruments. This made me feel like perhaps we had a similar way of understanding music. However, one day while hanging with classmates outside of school, a familiar pop song came on and I naturally sang a harmony to it. This harmony was not actually in the song, but felt like a standard harmony that followed along with the melody line. My classmates were awed in a way that was confusing to me.

I knew that they were such talented vocalists, but in that moment, I learned that not only were they unable to create a standard harmony line, but also had difficulty trying to replicate it after hearing me sing it. It’s still fascinating to me that they were able to sing so well and so in tune while primarily understanding music on paper. Additionally, they had difficulty adapting to the genre of the song stylistically. I recognized then that everyone didn’t have the mental separation I’d created in seeing my voice as two separate instruments. Because why would they need it?

Versatility in musical genres

Alternatively, I have found that Gospel vocalists are more easily able to do the opposite. I sang with a trio fresh out of undergraduate school in which I was the only member who was classically trained. We did some touring and performances as well as many studio sessions for backing vocals. We were known for our dense and ornamented vocal arrangements. The vast majority of these studio sessions for backing vocals were done by ear.

In one particular session, however, the producer handed us sheet music with our harmonies written out. We were asked to sing what was written as well as arrange more layers of additional vocals. I read and sang my bandmates harmony lines to each of them no more than twice and they were able to quite easily replicate the lines for recording. They were additionally able to brilliantly arrange supporting vocals beyond what was written. Although my classmates would have been able to read their harmony lines without help, based on the interactions I’d seen, I believe they would have faced significant struggles in arranging additional vocals.

The ability to comprehend, replicate, and write music by ear has been proven so central to creation processes in the music field. Although I can now identify these sounds with certain terminology, I find that my ears tend to lead the way. Because my ears have been trained from an early age to adapt to subtle nuances in sound, it has made learning other genres more accessible even without further training or experience in that particular genre. In my career, I have had many opportunities to write and create songs in many genres. In the remainder of this thesis, I will provide four original compositions that showcase my versatility in songwriting.

I began writing “God Who Delivers” in 2016 following the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castille both being shot by police within days of each other. The concept that God continues to deliver His people again and again throughout history means that deliverance is an ongoing process. Verse one references the Old Testament story of Moses being used to deliver God's people in Egypt. Verse two references the historical figure Harriet Tubman being used to help deliver African-Americans from slavery. The bridge names Jesus as the ultimate liberator and leads back to the chorus pleading for deliverance from our current plight of injustice. It is dark and painful, but relies on hope for the future. I called on my former bandmate Joseph to sing a compelling lead vocal.

(Refer to Appendix A for lyric/chord chart)

Text painting in lyric writing 

A large portion of understanding Gospel music lyrically is having an understanding of biblical scripture. The Bible is full of intricately detailed storytelling and much symbolism. From a young age, I was singing lyrics with connected themes of struggle, sacrifice, and hope. With time I grew to actually understand them. In my interview with Erin, we spoke about the symbolism of blood reaching to the highest mountains and lowest valleys used by Andrae Crouch. This type of lyrical text painting is potent in church music including Gospel. The connection between scripture and song creates many beautiful lyrical finds. With “God Who Delivers,” I wanted to create the same type of pleading and desperation found in the prayers of Moses written in Exodus. The same language in which he used in prayer to the God of his ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is the same language I chose to use in this prayer for deliverance today. Similar types of lyrical thematic connections outside of scripture, per se, have been great tools for me in other genres of songwriting as well. The musical aspect of the song was a journey through what my heart and body wanted to feel through the music. 

Embodiment in Gospel music 

Throughout my interview with iAmSon the concept that stuck with me was the notion that Gospel music is so influential because it is so easily felt in the body. He consistently came back to the way that certain musical elements physically felt to him. Perhaps this could be attributed to the understanding that the creators of this music were instilling high energy into such projects. This “high energy” would be understood by Christians to be a quite tangible spiritual presence within the creation of a song. Perhaps it’s the dense instrumentation typically involved in the performance of Gospel music. Whatever the case, Gospel music continues to be a very evocative form of expression. 

Music education styles of music training 

“Today’s generation of music educators must somehow fill in this gap, as the demand for popular-music education is increasing exponentially. What is the role of the music teacher in this context? What does the average classically trained music educator do? What are his or her roles? What are his or her priorities?”
(Popular Music and Classical Musicians, Allsup, 2011) 

In March of 2011, Randall Everett Allsup was an assistant professor of music and music education at Teachers College, Columbia University. These were some of the questions he was posing about the music education field in the Music Educators journal during that time. The “gap” that he’s referring to is the disparity between the classically trained teachers and the students wanting to learn more contemporary forms of music. The music education system has certainly evolved in the twelve years since this journal was written. And although I do believe that there has been growth in the stylistic diversity of music being taught in American music schools, I do not believe that musicians with a training in Gospel music are considered valid for a classroom setting without some other form of training to accompany. 

To be clear, although I do believe that aural training in a Gospel music setting has proven to be a more than sufficient form of musical training, my aim is not render other forms of education useless. I do not seek to disprove the value in classical music education or any other style of music education for that matter. My gripe is with the implicit systems that often label musicians from this background as untrained or underqualified. According to Francisco Luis Reyes, formal music education is defined as “a form of instruction in which students systematically develop musical literacy and skills through the guidance of an instructor.” (A Community Music Approach to Popular Music Teaching in Formal Music Education, Reyes, 2017) By this definition, many musicians from a Black church setting have received this sort of guidance and literacy, although it is often not shown on paper. I seek to simply illuminate the value in this form of musicianship without discrediting the others. 

This argument could also apply to other self taught and perhaps other less recognized forms of musical training. However, my reasoning for seeking to illuminate Gospel music in particular is that the mainstream Pop industry is so potent with these musicians as well as the soulful influences that have been highlighted. In my discussion with iAmSon, he spoke about his brother, O’Neil Palmer being a music director for Justin Bieber’s band. Adam Blackstone is arguably the most decorated musical director of the Pop music industry currently. He has musically directed for artists such as Rihanna, Maroon 5, and Jay-Z and he began playing drums in his local church at the age of four. There are many other examples and the influence is evident. 

Adaptability in songwriting 

My God-daughters have tagged along with me to many rehearsals, studio sessions, and gigs since they were born. They believe that “Gaga,” as they affectionately call me, is famous because they’ve watched me sing online. I noticed around age four that my youngest God-daughter, Peyton took more of a liking to music. One day at age nine, she asked if she could record her own song. I warned her that we could do it but that it may take more work than she expected. She promised to work hard, so we took a day to write and record a song about something relevant to her. The idea that we came up with was “Chores.” 

I began to notice that Peyton showed signs of musical inclination when I could hear that as she sang along to things, she had a good sense of pitch and sang the correct intervals. When the two of them came to rehearsals and studio sessions with me, her elder sister would often quietly play with toys or games while Peyton would intently watch and listen. Once I’d determined this, I remember telling this to her mother, my best friend. She asked for my advice on what steps to take to harness Peytons young musical gifts. My first suggestion was to allow her to join the church choir. As she has grown older, she has been able to experiment with what instrument she may prefer. But I knew that in the meantime, it was important for her to have an outlet to regularly be around live music, aside from being with me. Not to mention, this option is free. 

When Peyton asked to record a song, I took into account the styles that I knew she listened to at that time. She loved Pop music with a fun and light feel, perhaps as most nine year old girls might. I knew that I wanted to create content for her that was age appropriate, so I asked her to tell me what was on her mind. After talking for a bit, she told me a story about getting her tablet taken away because she hadn’t completed her chores for the day. We talked more about this and decided to write about it.

She vented about coming home from school and wanting to relax. I still remember her exclaiming “I spend forever in school!” I knew this had to make it into the song. Her words reminded me of “The lazy song” by Bruno Mars. With this as a reference, I created a simple progression on guitar and a fun, simple melody in her vocal range. She worked hard and did an excellent job. We went to the park and had ice cream afterward. 

Whenever I’m asked to write a song for an artist, I first consider the style in which they would feel best suited to sing. Writing a song for Peyton was my first experience in writing music for such a young client, but the process began the same. I knew what melodies would fit in her vocal range and was able to craft a melody around this. I rely heavily on my ears for this process. In order to write from the emotional perspective of someone else, I rely heavily on some of the embodiment of music that I learn from Gospel. 

R&B music is full of themes of love and heartache. I wrote “Issues” not from experience myself, but instead from the perspective of someone I’d been seeing. When Naomi sent me a track she’d produced, I immediately felt the complexity in its mood. I reflected back to repeatedly hearing the words “It’s a me thing” and this spurred me on to write about the experience. Although the experience was somewhat personal to write about, I simultaneously knew that I needed to craft it in a way that would best fit Naomi’s vocal range and style.

I typically begin my writing process with some vague idea for a concept. I imagine how I want the song to feel and what I want it to convey. Sometimes a lyric will come first, sometimes the melody; but in any case, the chord progression is usually not far behind. Being that my strengths are not in production, this process is usually different for me when writing R&B. While in other genres, I usually write from guitar or piano, in R&B, I’m typically writing to a track that is already created. This means that I need to be able to access what emotions feel suited for the mood of the track being presented to me. 

Once I had the concept for “Issues,” I wrote it in somewhat of a freestyle form. I recorded myself mumbling through the song with certain words or phrases peeking through. I went back and finalized the lyrics afterward. The rhyme scheme is not perfect and the musical phrases don’t necessarily repeat in an intuitive way, apart from the hook. This is typical of modern R&B and because the track is consistent in its repetitious chord structure, this felt appropriate for the melody. 

Naomi is such a capable vocalist that I felt very free in terms of range and vocal agility, but still needed to stay stylistically appropriate. I’ve spent years listening to R&B artists such as H.E.R. and Kehlani and used these influences to make melodic and lyrical choices. This reminds me of older days in church when I heard my choir director choosing who should lead which selections. He possessed a skill in being able to assess what a solo required and which present choir member was best capable of executing such. This requires a similar skill in which I find exciting as a songwriter. Thankfully, Naomi was pleased with what I’d written and did an impeccable job of executing it in her own way.

Songwriting is sometimes a job, but it is also my passion. I’m thankful to still be able to write music just because I feel something, not because I have to. I’d like to conclude my musical samples with a song I wrote about both of my God-daughters. 

Upon first listen, “Know it by Heart” could appear to be a love song about a romantic interest, and that’s alright. For me, however, it’s a song about my love for them. I was never a person who gravitated toward playing with children, so when my best friend found out that she was pregnant and then wanted to name me as Madisyn's God-mother, I was not only surprised but uninterested. Twelve years later, Madisyn and her sister, Peyton, are some of the best parts of my life. There was a day when I remembered them both being toddlers, and how I’d found myself surprised that I was now a “baby person.” Even other babies and toddlers their age reminded me of them. Then when they were ages five and four, I remember thinking to myself that I somehow now enjoyed preschool aged children. This happened for years before I realized that it was truly just them. Whatever age they are is the age I enjoy most. 

“Know it by Heart” is about loving someone throughout many years and enjoying learning them. It is a ballad meant to convey a simple message with little instrumentation. I asked my former bandmate, Mariah, to lend her voice for a recording.

Bibliography 

Williams-Jones, Pearl. “Afro-American Gospel Music: A Crystallization of the Black Aesthetic.” Ethnomusicology, vol. 19, no. 3, 1975, pp. 373–385. 

Bulley, James and Şahin, Özden. “Practice Research - Report 1: What is practice research?” and “Report 2: How can practice research be shared?”. London: PRAG-UK, 2021. 

Boyer, Horace Clarence. “Contemporary Gospel Music.” The Black Perspective in Music, vol. 7, no. 1, 1979, pp. 5–58. 

Legg, Andrew. “A Taxonomy of Musical Gesture in African American Gospel Music.” Popular Music, vol. 29, no. 1, 2010, pp. 103–129. 

Allsup, Randal Everrett. “Popular Music and Classical Musicians,” Music Educators Journal, March 2011 

Reyes, Francisco Luis. “The Canadian Music Educator;” Edmonton Vol. 59, Iss. 1, 2017: 23-29.

Poerwandari, Elizabeth Kristi. “Minimizing Bias and Maximizing the Potential Strengths of Autoethnography as a Narrative Research,”
The Japanese Psychological Research Association, February 2021