Book dossier

The gospel sound

by Anthony Heilbut

Anthony Heilbut's book, originally published in 1971, updated in 1975, and revised in 1985, is a sophisticated study of gospel music and the Afro-Protestant folk church that produced it. Heilbut combines history of black gospel songs with biography of the singers; analyzes theological and sociocultural differences among Baptist, Pentecostal, and Holiness churches; looks at the distinctions between black sacred and secular life and music; shows the enormous impact of gospel on popular music; and criticizes the gospel singers who have sold out to commercialism. Despite commercialization and acculturation, the black folk church continues to produce songs and singers that carry the authentic culture of their people. Yet it is often ignored even by students of popular culture, let alone the more established academic disciplines. The Gospel Sound is a serious historical and intellectual study of this tradition -- past and present. - The Black Gospel Difference / Richard Newman (Christianity and Crisis, August 3, 1987, page 270).