In the spring, I teach “Gospel Music from the Church to the Streets.” We will return to black sacred music, from spirituals to the music of Kanye West’s Sunday Service Choir and the Maverick City Music choir. You can think of this course as an introduction to the history of the Black American Church, because you cannot tell the story of gospel music without also telling the story of African American Christianity. The graduate course I teach is called “Gods of Hip Hop and Black Pop.” In this course we will study the work of great celebrities of black popular music and hip-hop, such as Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Kanye West, etc. We’ll look at how they use religion and religious iconography in their lyrics, performances, and characters.
GAZETTE: Could you talk about your current book project, which was the subject of your research leave?
BARRON: My current book project is called “The Platinum Age of Gospel.” This spans from 1993 to 2013. I call this era the “Platinum Age” because it shows the succession of the “Golden Age” of gospel, which took place from 1945 to 1965. This reflects of the incredible commercial success that a number of gospel artists have enjoyed. that we have lived in a relatively short period of time; there were a large number of platinum-selling gospel albums in the platinum era. I argue that something different is happening in this era compared to previous eras of gospel music, although we tend to see a sort of cyclical process in which gospel music is avant-garde, churches reject the music, and eventually the churches accept the music, and the cycle repeats itself.
GAZETTE: What interests you about this current moment in gospel music?
BARRON: I’m interested in how the gospel music industry’s decades-long push toward crossover success (moving into black popular music like hip-hop and R&B, but also into white Christian markets) has affected music and allowed artists like Kanye West and the Maverick City Music choir to dominate the gospel and Christian charts today.
I want to study the relationship between gospel and the Black Lives Matter movement and how gospel works or doesn’t work in the same way that we saw black church music work during the civil rights movement.
GAZETTE: How is this relationship similar?
BARRON: We are seeing a reintroduction of some music from the past. Clergy participating in the Black Lives Matter movement are bringing back the spirituals and some congregational music that circulated during the civil rights movement. We also see gospel music played at funerals of victims of police brutality, for example at the funeral of George Floyd.
But it’s different in this era, because the Black Church is not centered in the Black Lives Matter movement in the same way it was at the forefront during the civil rights movement of the mid-20th century.
GAZETTE: How does being a member of the clergy relate to your research work?
BARRON: For me, being a clergyman and a musician who plays music in churches helps me understand and engage with some of my research topics as an insider. I want my work to build a bridge, so that people in churches and other musical communities can pick up an academic book and actually feel like their stories are being told in an honest, accurate way and from a place of care , even amid criticism.
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