Gospel Singers: Pop Up, Sweet Chariot

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Having spent so long on the back streets, gospel singers greet the establishment's new enthusiasm with a doubting, puzzled Wha? Many of them have been working as rhythm-and-blues singers, and now they can be in the new groove merely by singing the remembered songs of their childhood choir-loft days. But even with all the corporate delight at the new groove's financial prospects, the cheerful, sensate piety of the music had already begun to sound like its own requiem by the end of the first week of official enthusiasm. Gospel music is the last remaining unpackaged expression of Negro culture; now that it is being merchandised, where will the new grooves come from?