Gospeltainment: Towards a Theory for Nigerian Gospel Music
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Date
2016
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Publisher
the Association of Nigerian Musicologists
Abstract
This paper argues that there is a shift in the frontiers of the concept of entertainment and the concept of gospel music emphasizing the inseparability of entertainment from gospel music performances. the debate on the spiritual and the entertainment content of gospel music in Nigeria has been on since the 1980s especially between the gospel musicians who claim that they are not entertainers but ministers and the patrons and analysts who see gospel musicians as entertainers of a sort. It is our intention in this paper to marry these two positions through a proposal of a "Gospel Entertainment Theory" within the theoretical praxis of gospeltainment which rests on the notion that there is inherent entertainment in gospel music performance or that entertainment is generally inseparable from gospel music performances as there are underlining entertainment elements in gospel music performance which can be purely musical, extra-musical or both. These elements can also be latent, underlining or dominant and can either be intended or unintended. The paper challenges the current notions of entertainment as limited to secular performance only and the notion that gospel music is not meant to entertain.
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Keywords
Nigerian gospel music; Entertainment; Gospeltainment Theory
Citation
JANIM Journal of the Association of Nigerian Musicologists No 10 (2016); 240 – 259