In this brief YouTube excerpt, Speaker A bluntly claims that "Christian music is white, gospel music is black," framing the discussion as a racial dichotomy between contemporary Christian music (CCM) and gospel. Speaker B challenges the relevance of that statement and introduces a video featuring Norman John Fee and Kirk Franklin, which purportedly breaks down the differences between gospel and Christian music in a nuanced way. Speaker B suggests that understanding these distinctions is important for grasping the cultural implications of current trends in the music world, before returning to Speaker A's repeated assertion.
Christian music is white, gospel music is black.
What does that have to do with gospel and Christian music? Now, the first thing that blows my mind is I was watching a video that Norman John Fee and Kirk Franklin did together that broke down the differences between gospel and Christian music in a way that I've never heard explicitly, but I think is worth talking about as we consider the cultural implications of what is happening in the world today. They broke down gospel and Christian music in a way that I've never heard it before, but I understand why the tables are being shaken. So let's listen.
Christian music is white, gospel music is black, 100%.
Yeah, so if you hear Christian music, you're going to have a white person, and there's no ambiguity. Kirk Franklin, who is in a sense a mogul in the gospel music industry, is stamping and affirming that there's no ambiguity in Christian contemporary music being white and gospel music being black. Lets us know that the thing that we all are uncomfortable with here is culture. I've heard somebody that is trying to mask— they wanted to sound deep and they said that Maverick City has no anointing, they only have money. And it's just a silly take, right, to discredit the work that these people have been doing as it relates to their service to God, their ministering to God, their investment in their gifts and talents and trying to return multifold back to God, and saying that there's no anointing, there's just money, is ridiculous. And it lets us know that there's a cultural stigma that is here.
