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Black and white photo illustration: Inside a small wooden church on a Sunday morning, sunlight through tall plain windows, rows of choir robes seen from behind, hands raised, an upright piano at the side.
Gospel · A WOODEN CHURCH ON SUNDAYPhoto illustration · XLR

Music / Styles A–Z / American roots · 03 of 35

Gospel

Gospel is Christian music rooted in the hymns and spirituals of the Southern United States, built on a dominant lead voice, strong harmonies and lyrics of faith.

Where and when
Southern United States
Tempo
Not fixed
Played on
Lead voice, choir, piano, guitar
Lesson
American roots →

What it is

Gospel is Christian music built on dominant lead vocals, strong harmonies and lyrics of faith, with its roots in hymns and spirituals of the Southern United States. The gospel choir grew in Black churches in the north as Southern migrants brought the music with them.

For the producer. The voice leads and the choir answers: record the harmony as a body of singers, not as stacked copies of one voice. Urban contemporary gospel takes its rhythms and instruments from the secular music of its day, electronic beats included.

The records that made it

From the lesson American roots, where the sources are listed · links open a search

  1. 1969
    Oh Happy DayThe Edwin Hawkins Singers · Opened urban contemporary gospel; still sung worldwide.

    Spotify ↗Apple Music ↗YouTube ↗

Gospel in this month’s records

New releases the press we read wrote about, tagged gospel on MusicBrainz · updated with every build

All new releases →

No new record in the press we read is tagged gospel this month. The list fills as records come out.

Play it
yourself