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The word Godspell, which literally means Word of God, is the historical origin of what we all know today as Gospel music. That is why during the nineteenth century the culture and musical tradition that brings us to this post today began to take shape. You see, many times we are not aware of how many of the things around us actually started. For example, Taylor Swift breaking sales records and collecting millions of plays on every platform, or the rap and urban music that define so much of the modern sound we all recognize today.
In 1930, Christian music reached what I personally consider the most transcendental milestone of contemporary music history. What do I mean by that. In the deeply divided southern United States, a style of liturgical music emerged that encouraged hundreds, thousands, even millions of believers to keep returning to church for generations. The style I am talking about involved choirs of around thirty members whose voices created an atmosphere that made the mysticism surrounding religion easier to approach and easier for people to feel and understand.
At a time when none of the things we now take for granted even existed, Gospel music represented a very limited niche. Originally it belonged to a minority within a minority. African American Christians, not Catholics, who used this musical tradition as a way to express their faith and extend their theological beliefs through artistic expression. The woman you will read about next is someone I have written about before here on Hive, but I will mention her again because she truly was remarkable.
Rosetta Tharpe was the pioneer who bridged the classical environment where Gospel usually lived and the rest of us, so to speak. In other words, this extraordinary woman made it possible for soul, jazz, blues, rock, rap, pop and even techno to exist in the first place. Am I exaggerating. Not at all. Tharpe became the first African American woman to cross the Atlantic between the United States and the United Kingdom on tour to showcase what she herself described as her special talent. She was referring to the kind of music she composed, a sound that would eventually change everything.
Rock and roll, ladies and gentlemen. In the late thirties and early forties, this woman laid the foundations for the pentatonic riffs that later defined classic rock and roll. She helped shape the most recognizable rhythms of the blues and also opened the door for the emotional and expressive singing that would later characterize soul and rhythm and blues. Because of that, pop music, which came shortly after these genres, also owes a great deal to her and above all to Gospel itself.
What I am explaining may sound unusual or even far fetched, but you can be sure that it is true. It is also important if we want to understand how the things that shaped our normal lives and even our musical tastes actually happened. This post was born from the need to explain something essential about music, its heroes, and the reasons why they should never be forgotten. From time to time, it is necessary to keep these origins alive and to remember how certain moments, even when they receive very little attention, end up transforming everything. If that is not inspirational, passionate, and meaningful, the very ideas that define this community, then I honestly do not know what would be.
