Sacred-secular, gospel-pop crossovers

: secularisation, music's meanings and Black British heritage

Abstract

'Sacred-Secular, Gospel-Pop Crossovers' presents an analysis of the sound of gospel music as it is understood in popular culture. A key premise of this dissertation is that the traditional sacred-secular binary does not neatly apply to a Western post-Christian milieu. This dissertation offers an alternative four-quadrant model for interrogating sacred and secular. Another premise of this dissertation is that the gospel sound in pop music is often tacitly recognised by its listeners. I make elements of the gospel sound (and its semiotic meaning) explicit through a theory that I call 'gospel codes'.

Chapter 1, following Charles Taylor's theory of a secular age, shows how the transcendent may be evoked in music that is not traditionally understood as religious. I show that there is a shared store of musical signs that carry semiotic meaning in both gospel and pop music. Chapter 2 lays out a Peircean semiotic theory of gospel codes; it also foregrounds the importance of listener interpretation in defining musical meaning. Chapter 3 broadens the account of gospel music to include a Black Atlantic narrative that specifically focuses on the Caribbean and British roots and routes of black British gospel music. Chapter 4 highlights a specific period (1971-1975) that was key in embedding the African American gospel sound in the popular social imaginary. This chapter analyses that sound and then provides evidence of its presence in hundreds of popular songs. Chapter 5 utilises a Peircean semiotic reading of gospel signs to explore meaning in sacred-secular crossover. Chapter 6 applies my quadrant model and shows that, instead of solely secularisation, there has been a pluralisation of belief and re-enchantment of society, evident in gospel music. In an age of post-Christendom, in the UK, the presence of gospel stylisation in pop may be considered part of the re-enchantment of popular culture.

Date of Award	27 Sept 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bristol
Supervisor	Justin A Williams (Supervisor) & Emma C Hornby (Supervisor)