Gospel Music Goes Mainstream by EZ-Tracks

Once confined to the churches, Gospel music has now gone almost completely mainstream, and thanks to the efforts of stars like Amy Grant and Kirk Franklin, experts say faith-based music will become even more popular as the new millennium progresses.
"Like the blues, gospel will become part of the fabric of American music and will become synonymous with American music," says scholar and performer Horace Clarence Boyer. "It will be heard in elevators, over telephones, in department stores, movies and commercials."

Of late, big business has embraced the gospel genre, according to a recent article on Washington Post.com. "There's been a growing interest in this faith-based market from mainstream corporate America," Max Siegel, president of Sony's Zomba Gospel label, was quoted as saying in the article. "Initially there was a lot of hesitation due to the religious nature of it. A lot of companies liked to stay neutral, and no one could say exactly what the benefit would be. But the federal government has made faith-based initiatives acceptable," he said. The article noted that in 2004, African American gospel singers sold $140 million worth of CDs.

Siegel went on to not that in the past, the advertisers most interested in reaching this market were small church-based entrepreneurs -- Christian book authors and small-time recording artists. But as the genre evolved from Mahalia Jackson singing sweet hymns in a choir robe to singers performing holy hip-hop for sold-out concerts in huge sports arenas, corporations noticed.

Both Wal-Mart and Proctor & Gamble have signed on as advertisers to the newly launched Gospel Music Channel, which turned out to be the fastest growing cable network in 2007, now viewed in 22 million households. "We were very ambitious in our projections for the channel's cable growth this year," Said Charles Humbard, founder and president of GMC, in a press release." To exceed those goals by nearly double reflects both the strong desire of the cable operators to provide their customers with positive, family-friendly and inspiring music television programming."

The GMC release pointed out that the key catalyst for the network's growth has been its ongoing commitment to producing original programming. "Gospel Music Channel has become the largest producer of original Gospel/Christian music television in the world, producing more than 200 hours of concerts, series, specials and video, producing all new content in High Definition," said the release. "Most recently, GMC premiered a new weekly series, The Kitchen Sink, an hour-long music performance, news, entertainment and variety program; the only national show of its kind featuring Christian and gospel music." The show is a combination of live in-studio performances by top artists, interviews, world premiere videos, the latest entertainment news and previews, undiscovered new talent, inspiring feature stories and more.

Gospel music is also featured on the oldest gospel station, Gospel Music Television, out of Gainesville, Texas, and Black Entertainment Television, which hosts a show called "Gospel Explosion," a premier showcase for new gospel songs. It seems that no matter where you look on the musical landscape today, you'll find gospel music--praise the Lord!

Whether it's southern bluegrass, soul or Christian gospel songs, you can find an array of faith-based tunes on the Web, at sites like Ez-Tracks.com. As you can tell by its abundance, gospel music is fast becoming a part of the mainstream and a musical experience anyone can appreciate.