Gospel Rises Again

Black Enterprise, July, 1998 by Shawn E. Rhea

Adams, one of the first artists to challenge the traditional thought of how a gospel artist should look, says she found that fans responded to her style. "We got feedback from record stores where people looked at the album cover for More Than A Melody and said, `Wow, who is this, what kind of music is this?' They'd pick up [the album] just because of the picture, so we know packaging is important."

Teresa Hairston-Harris, publisher of Gospel Today and Gospel Industry Today magazines, says artists' performances are also helping to revamp the music's image and add to its appeal. Previously, gospel artists were reluctant to dance onstage, but the rules are changing. "The performances are much different now than 10 years ago," says Harris. "There's choreography and staging; it's unashamedly entertaining." Last year's "Tour of Life" road show, featuring Kirk Franklin, Yolanda Adams and Fred Hammond, had a staging that cost $125,000--an unprecedented amount for a black gospel tour.

While visual repackaging and a few key artists have piqued the interest of major record labels, it took both an increase in sales and favorable demographic research to convince them to invest in gospel music. A 1996 study by New York-based Interep Research found that 50% of gospel radio listeners were 25-44, the prime demographic that accounts for more than 59% of all record sales.

These trends have prompted many of the major labels to either acquire or create distribution deals with existing independent labels. Sparrow Records (BeBe Winans) was purchased by EMI, while Word Records (Shirley Caesar and Anointed) was bought by Gaylord Entertainment. Others like B-Rite Music (God's Property) signed distribution deals with the likes of hip-hop label Interscope Records. As a result, labels that previously had trouble getting their product into national retailers are now receiving prime placement through their relationships with larger music companies.

A LABEL OF THEIR OWN

Two entrepreneurs at the forefront of gospel's explosion are Vicki Mack-Lataillade and husband Claude Lataillade, owners of GospoCentric and B-Rite Music. Six years ago, Mack-Lataillade, who'd worked for 15 years as an independent marketer on projects for Andre Crouch, Tramaine Hawkins and Whitney Houston, launched GospoCentric with the specific intention of bringing new sounds and voices to gospel music.

"The No. 1 music among youth is rap, and the churches tried to pretend that it didn't exist," says Mack-Lataillade. Unable to convince major labels that it was possible to create music that praised God while appealing to the musical inclinations of urban youth, she developed the kind of spiritual music her own children would like.

To launch the label, Mack-Lataillade pooled $10,000 from a variety of sources, including her dad's retirement fund. "We couldn't get loans from traditional sources because no one believed it would work," she recalls. Undeterred, she began building her label's roster, signing Kirk Franklin, then a 22-year-old, Dallas/Ft. Worth choir director with a reputation for creating radical gospel song arrangements, as her first artist.