Assignment:
1. The gospel music that we are currently singing in church and in other quarters can traces its roots from the African American culture which have had a huge impact on the music nature and the various genres which have been developed. Gospel music is not a genre rather than it is a music category which relies on genres to pass its message along. The genres which are contained in gospel music are similar to those found in the secular section as rick and blues. Gospel music is however sacred due to the use of scripture and also the fact that it is meant to motivate people to live a more religious life and reconcile their life with the teachings of God.
Rock music has been critical in the growth of gospel music as it provided a platform where people could derive the same rhyme and rhythm for gospel music which they were deriving form the secular music. The use of rick, people who would not be accepted into conventional church established their own movement and this has been replicated in the conventional churches and hence paved the way for more genres to be used in gospel music. Gospel music has to conform to three aspects for it to be considers as musical and also as gospel music. Gospel music has to have a culture and religious background while at the same time it has to be musical.
Gospel music heavily relies on the African American musical rhythm and temp which means that it is varied and unstructured in most cases and based on how a community or the lead singer sees fit which enables it to confirm to the musical standards of the group. Gospel music has also provided an avenue for people to specialize in different position in gospel music. People are training to be composers, music leads and also instrumentalist. Gospel music in line with modern music has accepted the use of instruments which makes it livelier and also enables the congregation and other people to join and direct how the song is being sung.
2. Why is a holistic approach critical to examining and understanding African American worship experiences?
African peoples are said to believe in reality all together as a whole instead of distinct parts (Costen, page 17, 3rd paragraph). Furthermore, all that really means is they tend to view a situation as whats happening all together, instead of looking what all created that situation separately. African American worship is viewed and shaped the same way, "a holistic approach is required for examining worship from within the African American experience" (Costen, page 17, 3rd paragraph). Additionally, they view the world as a harmonious being. All of God's creations are justifiable different, yet they are also dynamically connected through him. God has created an orderly world, through his creations the world will always be divinely linked forever. This approach makes sense to me, everyone tends to look at the big picture. I know I usually do. African American worship has been this way for a very long time. They are big on that divinely interconnectedness. Because as a human being each one of us was created by God, with that being said, since we are creations of God we have that interconnectedness with the rest of God's creations which is everything.