{"id":12803,"date":"2013-04-30T06:00:09","date_gmt":"2013-04-30T10:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southerngospelyankee.wordpress.com\/?p=12803"},"modified":"2013-04-30T06:00:09","modified_gmt":"2013-04-30T10:00:09","slug":"does-southern-gospel-need-youthful-appeal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/youngfogey\/2013\/04\/does-southern-gospel-need-youthful-appeal\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Southern Gospel Need Youthful Appeal?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Recently I was browsing the Musicscribe mega-blog (which y\u2019all should check out in its full glory here<\/a>), and I read a contribution<\/a> from Kyle Boreing about the country\/gospel sister act Red Roots. Kyle praised the sisters\u2019 smart, creative marketing choices, holding them up as a tasteful but effective example for the rest of the industry in this area. Specifically, he highlighted their use of radio contests and music videos. And it\u2019s paying off, as they\u2019ve gotten significant airplay and a handful of new artist nominations.
\nI also like Red Roots and agreed with most of Kyle\u2019s points. However, I gently pushed him a bit on one line in his post. When he listed the sisters\u2019 accomplishments, he added \u201c\u2026 and they\u2019re doing it with a youthful appeal that is otherwise SORELY lacking in gospel music.\u201d That wording caught my eye: SORELY lacking. I left a comment asking whether it was so bad that southern gospel is mostly made up of older groups. Red Roots\u2019 publicist, Rick Schweinsberg, actually responded to my comment, and this is what he said: \u201cWho said it was? But most veteran DJs will tell you that their listening audience is ready to go with something fresh.\u201d
\nOkay, that\u2019s well and good in its own way. I think it\u2019s great to see a youthful group join the genre. But I don\u2019t think that was Kyle\u2019s point, exactly. He seemed to be indicating that southern gospel needs<\/em> younger groups. And Rick\u2019s wording indicates a certain staleness or stagnation within southern gospel as it is.
\nI don\u2019t listen to southern gospel radio, but I\u2019m told it doesn\u2019t always circulate the best that\u2019s out there. So perhaps Rick has a point when it comes to SG radio.<\/em> But Kyle\u2019s original comment seemed to be in reference to the genre as a whole. Call me an old fuddy-duddy, but I\u2019m not sure I agree with him. Does southern gospel need <\/em>\u201cyouthful appeal\u201d in order to be a good genre? Is there something intrinsically good about youth, per se<\/em>? Red Roots is a talented group with some cute songs, don\u2019t get me wrong. But to be honest, I still prefer some of the older groups.
\nI also believe that some types of music should retain a certain core identity (we\u2019re leaving out the ones that need to crawl away and die altogether, like dance pop and hip-hop). Southern Gospel, in its purest form, has that distinctive identity. Think what a shame it would be if all the older groups still doing it the old-fashioned way were to be completely replaced by groups like Red Roots. In my opinion, it wouldn\u2019t be southern gospel anymore. It might be perfectly good in its own way, but it wouldn\u2019t be southern gospel. And old-fashioned southern gospel, done right, is worth preserving.
\nThose are my two cents. Now I will turn it over to you, the readers: Do you think Southern Gospel needs youthful appeal? Or does it perhaps depend on what the goals are?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently I was browsing the Musicscribe mega-blog (which y\u2019all should check out in its full glory here), and I read a contribution from Kyle Boreing about the country\/gospel sister act Red Roots. Kyle praised the sisters\u2019 smart, creative marketing choices, holding them up as a tasteful but effective example for the rest of the industry […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3595,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music"],"yoast_head":"\nDoes Southern Gospel Need Youthful Appeal?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Recently I was browsing the Musicscribe mega-blog (which y'all should check out in its full glory here), and I read a contribution from Kyle Boreing about\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/youngfogey\/2013\/04\/does-southern-gospel-need-youthful-appeal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Does Southern Gospel Need Youthful Appeal?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Recently I was browsing the Musicscribe mega-blog (which y'all should check out in its full glory here), and I read a contribution from Kyle Boreing about\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/youngfogey\/2013\/04\/does-southern-gospel-need-youthful-appeal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Young Fogey\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-04-30T10:00:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Esther O\u2019Reilly\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Esther O\u2019Reilly\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/youngfogey\/2013\/04\/does-southern-gospel-need-youthful-appeal\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/youngfogey\/2013\/04\/does-southern-gospel-need-youthful-appeal\/\",\"name\":\"Does Southern Gospel Need Youthful Appeal?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/youngfogey\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-04-30T10:00:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-04-30T10:00:09+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/youngfogey\/#\/schema\/person\/8f0bcab256554017bfa906ae92eef801\"},\"description\":\"Recently I was browsing the Musicscribe mega-blog (which y'all should check out in its full glory here), and I read a contribution from Kyle Boreing about\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/youngfogey\/2013\/04\/does-southern-gospel-need-youthful-appeal\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/youngfogey\/2013\/04\/does-southern-gospel-need-youthful-appeal\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/youngfogey\/2013\/04\/does-southern-gospel-need-youthful-appeal\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/youngfogey\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Does Southern Gospel Need Youthful Appeal?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/youngfogey\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/youngfogey\/\",\"name\":\"Young Fogey\",\"description\":\"Notes from a student of human nature\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/youngfogey\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/youngfogey\/#\/schema\/person\/8f0bcab256554017bfa906ae92eef801\",\"name\":\"Esther O\u2019Reilly\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/youngfogey\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/57648776f06e8c4e6bb1783fdd1f57d3?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/57648776f06e8c4e6bb1783fdd1f57d3?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Esther O\u2019Reilly\"},\"description\":\"I am a teacher and doctoral student of mathematics, but a lifelong student of human nature. 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