gospel music

Vocal music developed in the 1920s in the African-American Baptist churches of the US South from spirituals. It has an enthusiastic and emotional style and is often accompanied by rhythmical hand-clapping and foot-stamping. Outstanding among the early gospel singers was Mahalia Jackson, but from the 1930s to the mid-1950s male harmony groups took the lead, among them the Dixie Hummingbirds, the Swan Silvertones, and the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi.

Many of those classic gospel groups continued to perform into the 1990s, though with altered line-ups. The Edwin Hawkins Singers (formed 1967) had a pop hit in 1969 with the hymn ‘Oh Happy Day’.

The founder of gospel music is Thomas A Dorsey (1899-1993) from Georgia, who from 1932 wrote hundreds of gospel compositions, including ‘Peace in the Valley’ (1937) and ‘Take My Hand, Precious Lord’ (1932). White gospel, or country gospel, includes religious ballads popular in bluegrass; many country singers have also recorded Dorsey's material.