Full circle?

OK, back to gospel music.

In the past few days, I've noticed quite a bit of discussion in the southern gospel community about the genre's recent Dove award nominees.

Of course, when the Doves were born nearly 40 years ago, it was the growing southern gospel industry that created them in the first place...so why should it be so surprising now to see the genre's artists being nominated again?

Before anyone says so, let me just state that I'm aware that the categories that the southern gospel artists are being nominated in are the ones specific to that genre, so it's not like the Dove people made any extra room for them or anything.

But it is nice to see people like the Hoppers, Karen Peck and New River, Gerald Wolfe, and Ernie Haase and Signature Sound being considered for their just due by those same Dove people...for it seems to this distant but interested observer that artists like them should be recognized not only in their little corner of Christian music, but in all of it.

For when the first Doves were awarded in 1969, it's arguable that the artists operating in the southern gospel genre were the most talented ones in all of Christian music at that time. For what is known as "contemporary Christian music", or CCM for short was barely getting off the ground. And other artists in the field of Christian music were not making the overall impact in the music world that the southern ones were, IMHO.

And who else, logically, was the GMA going to give the awards to at that time? For the majority of the GMA leadership was composed of people whose background was in the southern field....and given the stratification that existed in the Christian music world then(and still does now, to a great extent), what else could one expect?

That situation existed until the late 1970s, when the CCM field began to develop some influence and muscle of its own. The number of categories grew and grew, until by the late 1980s, the southern gospel field began to feel like the proverbial red-headed stepchild, pushed aside in favor of the younger, hipper "cutting-edge" style.

By the 1990s, the Dove awards became an event not unlike the Grammy awards, even becoming a television event complete with vapid acceptance speeches, to where an event created to honor artists who made the best music dedicated to glorifying God became just another overly long, dull, tedious Hollywood-styled awards show.

All this is my own impressions of what the Doves became...for someone who always appreciated good, entertaining music yet looked upon gospel music as something with a higher purpose, this whole approach was disturbing...as if we were not only in the world, but of it as well.

Now I'm not going to accuse other musical genres of corrupting the gospel music world with a hostile takeover of its' award show, but something was clearly different than the originators of the Dove awards had intended, I'm sure.

Much of this can be laid at the feet of the southern genre, for becoming stale, complacent, and losing its' own idenity. Although there was still a lot of good music being made in the field, it seemed that the genre was lacking in direction and leadership.

And to a degree, that problem still exists in it today. And since the southern field now has its own awards and sources of recognition(the Singing News fan awards, the SGMA, the Southern Gospel News fan awards), the Doves are less and less of a focus than they were.

So it is always heartening to see that the GMA seems to be reaching out to its' founding genre a bit this year, and almost belatedly recognizing the southern field's indisputable contribution to the year's best Christian music.

And as a person with a vested interest in the southern genre, if not an actual member of the "industry"(despite what some of my friends claim), I admit I would love to see the artists in it get as much honor and recognition as possible.

So, you go guys(and gals)...take home the hardware!

Although I don't think awards are that big a deal for gospel singers(for they ought to know where their REAL awards come from), it is only human and natural for people to want recognition for what they do well.

And I realize that the above impressions are merely my own, and not necessarily reflective of what actually went on in the hearts and minds of those who were in charge of all of the above, I still feel that the southern genre has always had a high percentage of the most talented Christian music artists, and their lack of proportional recognition from the Dove awards has been unfortunate.

Let's hope that a change is in the air.

Page 1 of 1 pages

Comments

Add Comments

Name:

Email:

Location:

URL:

Please enter the word you see in the image below:

* Note: Members of Southern Gospel News.com who are logged in do not have to fill in the above information each time they post

By posting you agree to our Comments Policy

Remember my personal information

Notify me of follow-up comments?