What’s in a Genre? | GOSPEL

Meet Thomas A. Dorsey, the Father of Gospel, who after playing the Blues in clubs and house parties, brought that sound to his church. This clip from GOSPEL discusses how Dorsey’s bluesy compositions were frowned upon by many mainline churches whose music was primarily based in spirituals and hymns. However, Dorsey was able to blend Baptist, Pentecostal, Jazz, and Blues to create a captivating Gospel sound.

In this lesson, students will individually examine the Gospel songs “I Do, Don’t You?” by Melville W. Miller and “If I Don’t Get There,” by Thomas A. Dorsey, analyzing their lyrics for themes, literary devices, tone, mood, similarities and differences. Students will then discuss, as a class, what genre to classify “If I Don’t Get There” as based on their analysis and debate debate the following question: Why would some churches at the time not play “If I Don’t Get There?”

NOTE: This resource includes outdated language in the narration and closed captions [at marker 03:29-03:33] that is no longer in use and that may be considered offensive or inappropriate by some.