Celebrating Black History Month #5

Noted pastor, Civil Rights leader, theologian, and cultural historian Wyatt Tee Walker has identified five major genres of "Black Sacred Music" developed since 1619:

1. 1619-1800: Slave Utterances, Moans, Chants, Cries for Deliverance
2. 1760-1875: Spirituals (Faith Songs, Sorrow Songs, Plantation Hymns, others)
3. 1810-1900: Meter Music (Watts, Wesley, Sankey, et al)
4. 1875-1950: Hymns of Improvisation (Euro-American hymns with "beat")
5. 1920-1975: Gospel Music (Music of Hard Times -- cross-fertilization with secular)

Source: Carlton Young, Companion to The United Methodist Hymnal , p.22.

To Walker's list, we must now add a sixth category to include the explosion of creativity within the Black Sacred Music field in recent years, to include styles such as Jazz, R&B, Soul, Motown, Disco, Funk, Rap, Reggae, Hip Hop, and others.