Rebekah Kim’s Crossing Over: The Embrace of Gospel in a Pop World is one of the 14 pieces that comprises the Senior Essay Edition of The Yale Historical Review.

1. SPRING 2020
CROSSING OVER
by Rebekah Kim BR '20
Written for the Senior Thesis
Advised by Professor Jay Gitlin
Edited by Calvin Chai-Onn, Maya Ingram and Frankie Lukens
“Crossing over” from death to life reflects the Christian idea that people pass from this physical world to a spiritual realm beyond
death. The message of this hope of life after death is key to understanding the gospel songs of the twentieth century. However,
within this context, black gospel artists also “crossover” when they appeal to various audiences and release songs that fit secular
genres, an act that has generated discursive waves within the black church, but also in the entire nation.
This paper examines the lives of prominent gospel artists Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Mahalia Jackson, and the Staple Singers to better
understand the phenomenon of “crossover”—its motivations, impact, and even the viability of the term itself. Through historio-
graphies on the foundations of gospel music, dissertations and biographies examining the lives of these singers, and newspaper
articles reporting on their performances, I seek to understand what crossover encompasses as it applies to these artists. I also rely
on direct musical analysis as another way to interpret crossover taking place at different points in their careers.
Gospel music, from its beginnings, represented a fusion of traditional spirituals and church songs with musical ideas borrowed
from vernacular genres such as the blues, Tin Pan Alley, and jazz. Consequently, the line between gospel and the secular music
world represents a potentially porous border, teetering between the Saturday nights of clubs and obscenity, and Sunday mornings
of churches and propriety. Sister Rosetta Tharpe pushed the boundaries between the sacred and secular, and in doing so, was cri-
ticized by many in the church. Though she sang gospel songs, she flirted with venues and material that were considered Saturday
night, not Sunday morning. Mahalia Jackson, on the other hand, rarely strayed from her safe space in the church and in gospel
music. Rather, she invited others to make that journey over to meet her where she was. Even if at times she made decisions to cross
over in her musical style, her message of love and the Christian faith remained constant. For the Staple Singers, their involvement
in the Civil Rights movement, which was ubiquitous at the time, affected their decision to cross over. They did not want to record
songs purely of the gospel, but attempted to include messages that would address what people were going through in the present
world. They made the active step to cross over to the secular world of politics and music. In doing so, however, they brought
the messages of Christianity with them. In this sense, at exactly the point at which music in the form of songs such as “We Shall
Overcome” took a lead in inspiring a crossing over to a new world of freedom in this life, the Staple Singers, Mahalia Jackson, and
various other artists in the soul and pop worlds found a common musical expression. Freedom became a transcendent message
that fused genres.
Yet these three artists represent a struggle that continues for gospel artists even today. How do they balance faith and the world?
How do musical artists and audiences alike keep the core message of crossing over from death to eternal life when pop songs at-
tract and transgress boundaries that scandalize many in the church? Crossing over remains both a dangerous and contested zone
in the world of Saturday night and an article of faith and destination in the world of Sunday morning.
ABSTRACT
1YALE HISTORICAL REVIEW
The Embrace of Gospel in a Pop World