As more choirs were being formed in the churches they seemed to grow larger and larger to the point where it seemed as though it became the new standard of "the larger the choir the better the sound". Gospel music was evolving yet again. John P. Kee, Hezekiah Walker and many more set a new standard for gospel music and gospel choirs with a fresh innovative sound. Now as choirs are being replaced with smaller groups the church likes to call "praise teams" many gospel artists such as Kirk Franklin, James Fortune, and Tye Tribbett are performing with smaller groups and therefore the sound has changed yet again.
Not only do we now have a whole new sound to gospel music but we also have a new genre title to put it under, "Inspirational Music". It seems as though this new genre was created to give a category to artists who don't necessarily want their music to be stuck under the umbrella and/or barriers of gospel music. It gives them the ability to still be able to produce uplifting music but without the stigma of being marked as only producing religious music. I call it the cross over. Generally music that doesn't mention Jesus in it or directly say who they are singing about can fall under this category.
Artists such as BeBe & CeCe Winans produced music such as this for years with songs such as "I'll Take You There". Many R&B artists also produce "Inspirational Music" such as Jill Scott's Golden and Ledisi's Alright. Gospel music has truly evolved many times over but the question is, where does it stand now?
