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Music - Black Gospel Research

Researching Black Gospel

"Black gospel developed and flourished in the 20th and 21st centuries: first among African Americans in the northern industrial cities, then throughout North America and across many cultures.  Gospel music emerged ... as a distinct religious musical art form in the 1930s, which drew on spirituals, jubilee singing, the blues, and hymnody from various traditions."  Oxford Music Online

To begin your research, you can look through the resources on this guide, or search through our online catalog, OneSearch (https://www.baylor.edu/library/)

  • To search in OneSearch, I recommend choosing the Advanced Search option located under the search box. 
  • Once you are on this screen you can, change 'Any field' to 'subject' and type in 'gospel music'. 
  • Filters for audio, books, etc. are on the left side of your screen.  This will give you a basic view of materials in the collection that can support your research.

You can also search by name, title, or subject.

Click on the tabs on the left menu of this guide for more resources.

Song lists

To find gospel song titles, check through discographies, gospel charts, or award winners.

Here are some places to start:

  • Darden, Bob. People Get Ready! : a New History of Black Gospel Music . Continuum, 2004. Moody Arts Books ML3187 .D37 2004
  • Heilbut, Anthony. The Gospel Sound : Good News and Bad Times . Updated and rev., 1st Limelight ed., Limelight Editions, 1985. Moody Arts Books ML3187 .H44 1985
  • Jackson, Jerma A. Singing in My Soul : Black Gospel Music in a Secular Age . University of North Carolina Press, 2004. Moody Arts Books ML3187 .J23 2004

University Libraries

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