Traditional black gospel

===Original music (1920s&ndash;1940s)===
What most African Americans would identify today as "gospel" began in the early 20th century. The gospel music that [[Thomas A. Dorsey]], [[Sallie Martin]], [[Willie Mae Ford Smith]] and other pioneers popularized had its roots in the [[blues]] as well as in the more freewheeling forms of religious devotion of "Sanctified" or "[[Holiness movement|Holiness]]" churches&mdash;sometimes called "holy rollers" by other denominations &mdash; who encouraged individual church members to "testify", speaking or singing spontaneously about their faith and experience of the [[Holy Ghost]] and "[[Get Happy (gospel music)|Getting Happy]]", sometimes while dancing in celebration.<ref>New World Encyclopedia. "Urban Gospel" Dec 23 2013</ref> In the 1920s Sanctified artists, such as [[Arizona Dranes]], many of whom were also traveling preachers, started making records in a style that melded traditional religious themes with barrelhouse, [[blues]] and [[boogie-woogie (music)|boogie-woogie]] techniques and brought [[jazz]] instruments, such as drums and horns, into the church.

Thomas Dorsey stretched the boundaries in his day to create great gospel music, choirs, and quartets. Talented vocalists have been singing these songs far beyond Dorsey's expectations.

Dorsey, who had once composed for and played piano behind [[blues]] giants [[Tampa Red]], [[Ma Rainey]] and [[Bessie Smith]], worked hard to develop this new music, organizing an annual convention for gospel artists, touring with Martin to sell sheet music and gradually overcoming the resistance of more conservative churches to what many of them considered sinful, worldly music. Combining the sixteen bar structure and blues modes and rhythms with religious lyrics, Dorsey's compositions opened up possibilities for innovative singers such as [[Sister Rosetta Tharpe]] to apply their very individual talents to his songs, while inspiring church members to "shout" &mdash; either to call out catch phrases or to add musical lines of their own in response to the singers.

This looser style affected other Black religious musical styles as well. The most popular groups in the 1930s were male quartets or small groups such as [[The Golden Gate Quartet]], who sang, usually unaccompanied, in [[Jubilee quartets|jubilee]] style, mixing careful harmonies, melodious singing, playful syncopation and sophisticated arrangements to produce a fresh, experimental style far removed from the more somber hymn-singing. These groups also absorbed popular sounds from pop groups such as [[The Mills Brothers]] and produced songs that mixed conventional religious themes, humor and social and political commentary. They began to show more and more influence from gospel as they incorporated the new music into their repertoire.

In the 1930s gospel music of the civil rights movement was referred to as ''the Black gospel period'' because this was the most prosperous era for gospel music. The message of many of the civil rights activists was supported by the message gospel music was putting forth.