Customer Reviews

When the Church Becomes Your Party: Contemporary Gospel Music (African American Life)

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I will make it brief,this author is a Christian. This is not the ususal academic study of the church and its music, written by someone who does not get it. She understands what Black Church music is about. Good reading!

From its birth, gospel music has occupied a unique realm straddling the sacred and the secular. While it is God's word expressed in song, no other genre of sacred music reaches out to - and is enjoyed by - millions of people who may not even be believers. Perhaps it is because gospel music has been inextricably tied to media since the early days of radio, since both were born at about the same time. It can be an uneasy realm in which to dwell. Just as early 20th Century church goers heard the "devil's music" in the blues influenced works of Thomas A. Dorsey, many today are disconcerted by the concept of "Holy Hip Hop" and rapping preachers.

Pollard covers a lot of ground in under 200 pages, including among other things a history of gospel music, the influence and activism of female gospel announcers (who, to my surprise, have been around since the 1940's), the gospel musical stage play, the rise of praise and worship music, debates concerning what rightly belongs to Caesar and what belongs to God, and emerging trends like those rapping preachers.

This is unlike any other book about gospel music I've read. The fact that it is so readable and fascinating is probably due the background of author Deborah Smith Pollard. As an associate professor of English literature and humanities, she brings the requisite academic credentials. But she's not a scholar looking in from the outside; she also has a deep personal knowledge of the subject as a long time gospel announcer, church goer, choir member, concert producer and fan.

I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in music, religion, or African American culture.

Dr. Pollard has done an excellent job here, providing a contemporary look at the culture and ways of African American church life. Her ethnographic work is stellar and addresses many aspects of the fabric that weaves (symbolically and literally) through the spiritual lives of many of today's Black churches. She also covers the many cottage as well as large industries that surround and are supported by these church and musical communities, where others often overlook them or shortsightedly dismiss them as purely capitalistic, unholy enterprises. More books need to be written from informed and active insiders' perspective(s). Bravo!