Marcia Dixon wonders why so much of today's gospel music is creatively unimaginative.

Marcia Dixon

One of the things that upsets me about the current black gospel scene is it's dearth of genuine originality. There is an explosion of popularity - Nu Colours and LCGC in the UK charts with "crossover" items and BeBe And CeCe et al selling by the hundred thousand in the States. But where is the innovative creativity?

There was a time when the Church was the source of most things that were good within the black community. Most of America's leading black politicians, artists, dancers, writers, musicians and anyone else you care to name were brought up in the Church.

Though some may have rejected their Church roots, there is no doubt that they were heavily influenced by them, and these in turn had great influence in the areas which they chose to pursue.

The influence of the Church was particularly apparent in the area of music. Almost all of black America's R&B and pop artists started in the Church, and those who left it used what they learnt to pursue a successful singing career. Would artists like Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick or Whitney Houston, to name a few, be so successful if it were not for these stars' Church background? I don't think so.

At one time gospel had a profound influence on the development of Western music because of its artistry, creativity, originality and inspirational power. But that influence seems to be on the wane.

it appears black gospel has lost much of its creative and musical direction. Theologically, this is a little puzzling. If Christian singers and songwriters say they worship and are inspired by the author of creativity, then they should be producing top class and above all innovative music. Yet it seems that gospel artists receive more inspiration from what they hear on the radio and TV than from their Heavenly Father. Much of the creative fire seems to have left 1993's gospel music.

In the past, gospel artists who have had a great impact in their chosen field are those who, in their desire to forge something out of the white heat of genuine creativity produced in the process work with the ability to change the lives of those hearing it. How did these creators do it? I believe they buried themselves in the Word, sought God's face continually and then went and created music that was truly original but remained true to the old, old story.

Thomas Dorsey is credited as the inventor of gospel music. He brought jazz, spirituals and the blues, caught the flavour of classic Isaac Watts hymnody and came up with something new and fresh. Dorsey's songs were born out of his own experiences and from his study of the Word. But they were also put in a musical framework that didn't merely ape the jazz and blues of his day but added something fresh.

Thomas Dorsey's music was not accepted with open arms by the Church and he spent several years trying to win acceptance for his gospel sound. He eventually did. But that was 50 odd years ago! Today many traditional gospel artists seem content to perform in the styles and often the very songs that an inspired Dorsey developed all those decades ago. Let's be proud of our rich gospel roots. But let's not allow them to become a stylistic millstone discouraging new creativity.

More recently artists like James Cleveland, Andrae Crouch, the Clark Sisters and the Winans have all been creative pioneers, bringing something new and fresh into gospel music. Again, their innovation was resisted by the conservative elements within the Church. And again, now that these pioneers' musical approach has been accepted, most modem gospel artists are prepared merely to ape them.

Gospel artists of the 1990s are either so caught up with the past that their music is a replica of what we've heard many many times before, or so caught up with being hip and producing music akin to that in secular charts that style is a totally anonymous derivative. Also, of course, with "crossover" lyrics the person of Christ becomes a distant figure.

During the 1990s we need to again hear gospel music whose influences are not only derived from the past or from what's currently heard on the radio. We need music of Spirit-touched originality. When that happens 1990s gospel artists can again be the leaders of musical history rather than the derivative followers. Will it happen? Well, through God all things are possible. After all He is the source of everything good.