Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Introduction

Introduction lntrodudion During the forties a new genre of black popular music evolved, rhythm and blues (R&B)-a synthesis of blues, small band and big band swing, and gospel, which incorporated the new technology of the el_ectric bass. Rhythm and blues performers such as Dave Clark, King Curtis, Otis Redding, Ray Charles, Solomon Burke, Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, and the Impressions were not only the offspring of the black church, but also products of the new independent record labels, black retail outlets, and the black radio stations whose deejays promoted the new music. Rhythm and blues was not simply a fusion of blues, jazz, and gos­ pel styles; it was no less than a synthesis of worldly secularity and black church spirituality- so much so that many former gospel singers were severely criticized by black preachers and church mem­ bers for being lured into the nightclubs and bringing churchly ex­ pression into the worldly context. In such songs as "Hallelujah, I Love Her So," Ray Charles presents religious emotion as secular emotion and substitutes erotic love for Christian love; his "My Prayer" is supplication not for salvation but for his woman's pres­ ence; and his "Heaven On Earth" equates http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Black Sacred Music Duke University Press

Introduction

Spencer, Jon Michael
Black Sacred Music , Volume 6 (1) – Mar 1, 1992
Download PDF
3 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/duke-university-press/introduction-ChR729yM58
Copyright
Copyright © 1992 by Duke University Press
ISSN
1043-9455
eISSN
2640-9879
DOI
10.1215/10439455-6.1.203
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

lntrodudion During the forties a new genre of black popular music evolved, rhythm and blues (R&B)-a synthesis of blues, small band and big band swing, and gospel, which incorporated the new technology of the el_ectric bass. Rhythm and blues performers such as Dave Clark, King Curtis, Otis Redding, Ray Charles, Solomon Burke, Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, and the Impressions were not only the offspring of the black church, but also products of the new independent record labels, black retail outlets, and the black radio stations whose deejays promoted the new music. Rhythm and blues was not simply a fusion of blues, jazz, and gos­ pel styles; it was no less than a synthesis of worldly secularity and black church spirituality- so much so that many former gospel singers were severely criticized by black preachers and church mem­ bers for being lured into the nightclubs and bringing churchly ex­ pression into the worldly context. In such songs as "Hallelujah, I Love Her So," Ray Charles presents religious emotion as secular emotion and substitutes erotic love for Christian love; his "My Prayer" is supplication not for salvation but for his woman's pres­ ence; and his "Heaven On Earth" equates

Journal

Black Sacred Music – Duke University Press

Published: Mar 1, 1992

There are no references for this article.