Within gospel, the argument sometimes became especially antagonistic.
It's the same point of contention that continues to plague hip-hop, R&B, and other genres, driving fans, tastemakers, and artists to butt heads and philosophies as they try to determine what is authentic, or “real,” and what isn't. The genre was facing an ongoing internal battle over the sacred aesthetic principles of days past. (In fact, the song topped the Hot Dance/Disco charts to become one of the first modern crossover gospel records.)īut, despite the precedents set by the likes of Hawkins and Crouch, Franklin’s gospel-gone-mainstream wasn’t considered a victory by everyone. In the ‘80s, singer Tramaine Hawkins traded her robes for a more fashion-forward look and drew criticism for synth-pop records like “Fall Down (Spirit Of Love),” which sounds like it could've easily belonged to Whitney Houston. He stood on the shoulders of gospel greats who had similarly thrown tradition to the wayside. Though his acceptance of hip-hop broke significant ground for his generation, Franklin was in good company in making secular-sounding religious music. He’s young, and his presentation is young.” A few months later, she doubled down on the widespread appeal of “Why We Sing,” saying “the secret is finally out: Gospel lovers listen to urban radio - not a little, but quite a lot.” Vicki Mack Lataillade, founder of GospoCentric Records, a once-independent label now owned by Sony, said in a 1995 interview with Billboard that “ music is straight up gospel. Though gospel had already been a staple in many black households - my own life was soundtracked by my father’s Shirley Caesar and Yolanda Adams CDs - Franklin simply made music that resonated with young people.
Several years later, when I joined my church’s youth choir, nearly every song we took on came from his catalog. When his Nu Nation tour stopped in my hometown of Asheville, North Carolina, I proudly attended and leapt at the opportunity to “stomp” on stage with other kids. For me, Franklin and God’s Property marked the first time the word didn’t feel force-fed.
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