Gospeltainmet: Performance Style as Basis for Entertainment in Nigerian Gospel Music.
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Date
2023-03
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Publisher
Pwani University, Kilifi, Kenya.
Abstract
ABSTRACT
The Nigerian gospel music haven developed as a sub-genre of Christian music over the years in
Nigeria has become popular and identified with unique performance styles engaged by the
musicians. Such performance styles apart from enhancing the performance also generate
entertainment in the context of the ministration intended by the gospel musicians even when the
musicians do not admit it. This paper discusses performance style as basis for entertainment in
Nigerian Gospel Music by identifying such performance styles and how they are employed. The
paper relies on content analysis and descriptive methods, participant-observation and interview
as instruments of data collection. The ‘Gospeltainment’ theory is engaged to foreground the
discourse. It is discovered that the musicians adopt different performance modes and contexts in
order to appeal and sell their music in the phase of keen competition between it and other types of
entertainment music that exists in the country. The paper concludes that although the main focus
of the gospel musicians is to proclaim the gospel, entertainment is inherent in it even when it is
not intended and performance style is one of the vehicles that drive that entertainment. This has
made the music to serve a dual purpose of ministration and entertainment because it is religious
and has become popular.
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Keywords
Gospel Music; Performance Style; Entertainment; Gospeltainment theory
Citation
Ruwaza Afrika: Journal of Contemporary Research in Humanities & Social Science