The gospel controversy; are the new songs too jazzy and too worldly?

Ebony, March, 1992 by Karima A. Haynes

The lyrics of "I.O.U. Me" on their debut album, BeBe and CeCe Winans, also can be read, critics say, as either sensual, passionate human love or deep longing for spiritual gratification: "When I saw you/I could see that it was me you came to find/By the smile that was on your face/And the pain in my heart met the love in your eyes/And went away. "

"We have been controversial in the eyes of traditionalists, regarding the way gospel music should sound," BeBe Winans explains. At first we were a bit hesitant to explore different directions .. We shook off all those cares and just went for it."

BeBe and CeCe Winans' older brothers, The Winans, took a hit from traditionalists when they hooked up with Teddy Riley to produce their crossover hit, "It's Time." Marvin Winans says the group signed on with Riley because young people listen to his music and that they are not worried about critics who say they've sold out to the lure of secular glitz. "We're seeing people changed through our music and that's what the gospel is." He says the group's motto is: "It's not what you're playing, it's what you're saying."

Commissioned's latest album, Number 7, slams with hard-driving, "New Jack" jams. "This one is like urban, street, right-in-the-homeboys'-neighborhood," Hammond says. "You can roll down the windows in your truck and kick it. We got the bass hittin' just the way we need it to boom in a truck. You know what I'm sayin'?"

The group uses the funky beat as a witnessing tool aimed at young people who may never hear about the Lord. Says Hammond: "If you're going to listen to [house and hip-hop], why don't you listen to this message that can save your life and help you in your everyday walk. "

Alvin Chea, bass singer with the a capella jazz-gospel group Take 6, says the controversy is simply a matter of taste.

"It's basically two different philosophies," Chea says. "The package is different, but the content is the same. We're all singing about God."

Al Hobbs, chairman of the Announcer's Guild of the Gospel Music Workshop of America, makes the same point. The issue, he says, is to educate gospel lovers about the different styles of traditional, contemporary and urban contemporary gospel music and when to use what style.

Traditional gospel, he explains, is used to set the mood for a morning worship service; contemporary gospel can be used in a worship service, but is primarily heard at a concert; and urban contemporary goes out to people who may never hear the gospel message unless they hear it in a song played on a soul station or through a gospel music video on television.

"There are times when I need to hear "Near The Cross" and there are times in my life when Addictive Love" [the BeBe and CeCe Winans' hit that went to No. 1 on the R&B and gospel charts] is not going to say anything to me, but there are times that I can listen to that and feel lifted," Hobbs says. "I would think, however, you would be richer if for the moments of your life you could employ all of them."