ll has been written about and commented upon often in the past 15 years. Both black musical values and characteris tics and their impacts on mainstream American culture, however, are far deeper and of greater significance than their influence on rock and roll music would suggest.
The Protestant Second Awakening Movement in the early 19th century produced its own music, which was the spiritual.5 The spiritual was created in response to rural needs in rural 3settings, such as camp meetings. The Protestant Second Awaken ing Movement was followed in the mid 19th century by the Pro testant City Revival Movement.6
Where the Second Awakening Movement was rural based, the City Revival Movement was urban based. City Revival Movement meetings were held in huge temporary tents and stadiums, as opposed to outdoor camps. It was also noted that the spiri tuals which had been so effective in camp meeting settings did not address the needs of the common people in the country's rapidly growing cities. Thus, the City Revival Movement created its own musical form the gospel hymnody.
The writers of gospel music incorporated the traditions of the spiritual into their hymns, using both the forms of stanza/ chorus and refrains. Additionally, they incorporated forms and melodies from the popular music of the day, in the same manner that the writers of spirituals had incorporated the forms and melodies of folk music.
Many gospel hymns quickly gained popularity with black congregations in the United States. As the gospel hymns were gaining popularity among black Americans, new congregations were being formed among them by the Baptists and Methodists. The new black Methodist congregations generally followed the musical traditions and conventions of the mother church. The new black Baptist congregations, however, tended to strike "out in new directions reflecting the strength of African tradi tions."7 These Baptist congregations and...