Syncopation - In this case, it means moving the "pulse" of the melody off the beat, usually a bit ahead of it.But a musicologist would have noted unique influences from West African music underlying those simple, but profound lyrics. What we used to call the "Negro Spiritual" was born.Įven non-musicians recognize the raw emotional power of some of those old songs. As soon as a few of African exiles had absorbed the white man's religion, they began making up religious songs that included West African musical idioms. Very orderly and, to modern ears, rigid.īut as cotton plantations brought in hundreds of thousands of captive peoples from West Africa, they were also importing the captives' love of complex rhythms, as well as certain kinds of harmonies and approaches to melody. Whole notes, half notes, quarter notes, eighth notes, sixteenth notes, and so on. Three hundred years ago, folk and popular music rhythms among European emigrants to this continent were firmly based on the idea of subdividing (most) measures and notes by half, by half again, and by half again. Here's a great irony: nearly every aspect of Rock and Roll music that early Rock haters criticized entered our culture's musical vocabulary not through Rock and Roll, but through a specifically religious medium - the early Gospel songs of enslaved African Americans. The ties are far closer than you might think. So occasionally I find myself reviewing the ongoing relationship of Gospel and "popular music" (not just Rock). But every so often, I still run into someone who has "lived in a cave" for the last forty years and gets uncomfortable if the bass guitar plays too many notes or some such. Most members of growing churches today were very young or not even born when the music of Andre Crouch and The Second Chapter of Acts began finding its way to mainstream churches and Christian radio stations. After all, forty years have gone by since "Jesus music" started. Today, the vast majority of music played on Christian radio stations has Rock influences, and almost nobody gets kicked out of church for plugging in their guitars. Somehow, though, the tide did turn eventually. And let's face it, with so many bands writing twisted or immoral lyrics, you couldn't entirely blame older adults who couldn't tell the difference between the Carpenters and Black Sabbath for reacting "on the side of caution." Unfortunately, "I don't care for this musical style" all too often turned into "All songs with drums are of the devil." And, for Christians who liked the chorus but mistrusted the verses or the bands singing them, the Petra version even had Christian lyrics.īut for decades after Rock and Roll made an appearance, there seemed to be a struggle between those who believed that God gave Rock and Roll to you and those who believed it sprang directly from the bowels of hell. K.I.S.S., Petra, and several other groups have recorded versions of the old Argent song "God Gave Rock and Roll To You." There is no doubt that the song is catchy.
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