It’s a New Day

Last year, June 2008, the House of Representatives and Senate designated the Donald Lawrence, Gospel Artist/Producer month of September as Gospel Music Heritage Month in honor of gospel music’s “valuable long-standing contributions to American culture.”  Several Senators and Congress people along with the Gospel Music Channel television network and The Recording Academy launched the initiative to have the legislation passed.

Gospel music happens to be one of my favorite genres of music. Both, old time gospel and some of the more contemporary songs. This is the 2nd official year of Gospel Music Heritage Month and I am celebrating!

The Gospel group that I manage, Maharold Peoples, Jr. & Tribe of Praise, has been requested to perform in concert by Gospel music advocate, Carl Davis at one of the designated celebrations for Gospel Music Heritage Month, Lunchtime at the State Department (Washington DC), Wednesday, September 9th 2009.

Then, How Sweet The Sound, church choir contest sponsored by Verizon Wireless is touring across the country, hosted by Donald Lawrence and Marvin Sapp. It will be at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ on September 25th.

The one event I haven’t made it to yet is a combination of two of my favorite things, football and gospel—Super Bowl Gospel. (Although, this does seem a little contradictory the way players pound on each other during games :)). But, the two couldn’t be more exciting for me! …2010, February in Miami, ahhhhhh, let’s see.

Okay, back to my question. Gospel music lovers have the opportunity to enjoy many, many Gospel/Christian music events that happen throughout the year. (I love the job of traveling to listen to the Gospel). Most, I would say are sponsored by Church factions and religious organizations or radio & television media professionals. But is it the same when paired with commercial, non-religious entities?

It’s really interesting to see how major mainstream corporations have no problem aligning their brand with this particular segment of music, that is, traditionally known African-American inspired music, to promote their brand. Although, McDonalds Corporation (by way of a regional consortium of franchise owners) with its McDonald’s Gospelfest—Entertain Your Belief,  has been doing it for 26 years. Now corporate America (does this exist anymore? okay, never mind) is sponsoring gospel related shows on cable television, advertising on gospel radio channels and sponsoring live gospel events.

This is exploitation. But is this the good exploitation (standard advertising and publicity) that benefits major marketers AND gospel artists?  Or, is it the bad exploitation also known as selfish utilization?