The Only Thing Right Left in a Wrong World
The Only Thing Right Left in a Wrong World
The Clark Sisters, the Winans, Commissioned, and the Search for Cultural Authority in the 1980s
This chapter explores the music of the Winans, the Clark Sisters, and Commissioned. These Detroit-born artists pushed the sonic, theological, and political boundaries of urban contemporary gospel more aggressively than any of their peers. Embracing the rhythms of the secular and sacred worlds of black music, they forged a captivating sound with strong emphasis on craft mastery and innovative production techniques. Their bold approach was not limited to the sonic realm. On their recordings, strong critiques of racism and economic inequality intermingled with Moral Majority–influenced narratives attributing society’s decline to the breakdown of the nuclear, heterosexual family. Their music reflected the energy of a generation in the throes of social change along with the coexistence of liberal and conservative viewpoints within the black church.
Keywords: Detroit, urban contemporary gospel, conservatism, Moral Majority, the Winans, Commissioned, Clark Sisters, economic inequality, racism
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