Terrapin_Station

I'm an atheist, and I've always been an atheist--I didn't even really know about religious beliefs growing up; when I first learned about them in any detail I seriously thought it must have been a practical joke people were playing on me re claiming that they believed such things. Despite this, I love gospel music.

However, I don't normally care about lyrics when it comes to music. There are some exceptions--there are a handful of lyricists I'm particularly fond of, plus I have a fondness for what I call (after Zappa) "googly moogly" lyrics--stuff like "Rubber Biscuit", "Surfin' Bird", "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da", "Radio Ga Ga", "Cobrastyle", etc., and there are three "exception" genres where I do normally pay attention to lyrics--country, hip hop and anything comedy-oriented, but for the vast majority of music, including the vast majority of stuff I love, I have little idea what the lyrics even are.

With gospel, I actually do like the positivity and inspiration-orientation of a lot of the lyrics, but I don't pay much attention to lyrical details with it.

I'm attracted to music because I like the art of doing things with sounds. I'd never "subtract points" from anything because of lyrical content (the semantic (meaning) content of lyrics, that is). And there aren't any lyrics that I'd say are "bad." I have no concept of what a "bad lyric" would be. Lyrics only have to do with sounds when it comes to phonemes, the rhythm of the words, etc. That's part of what I like about "googly moogly" lyrics--they focus purely on phonemes and rhythm, and that's also part of why one of my favorite lyricists is Yes' Jon Anderson. Phonemes, phrasing/rhythms were always one of his primary focuses.

a4m

Does gospel vary in sound? What really defines gospel other than the content? What genres of music can gospel cross and what are some examples?

Terrapin_Station

I'm not sure if you're asking if it has distinct musical characteristics or whether there is a variety of gospel subgenres. The answer to both questions is "yes," though. And re the last question, there's stuff like country gospel, so that would count as a "cross."

Here are a few different examples of gospel that demonstrate the above answers (although catching on to the unique musical characteristics, if you've never listened to much gospel, is difficult to do with just a few examples that belong to different subgenres):

bydavidrosen

I try to listen to a little of everything, but out of the 1000 genres of electronic music out there, I'd say I don't listen to very many of them haha... Especially funny considering I make "electronica" music (which is one of the ones I don't listen to much).

MicShazam

I guess that's pretty normal. I listen to a lot of metal, barely any electronic music. But for some reason, I never write any metal. Never even occured that I could, and I don't think I want to either. But I do write electronic music. I guess it makes sense to create what you think is missing in a genre you are sort of curious about.

Also, most genres of electronic music seem kind of repetitive to me, but I'm sure there's something great I haven't discovered yet.

The Mystic

Never been a modern country fan. Always enjoyed the older stufff though. Jphnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Chet Atkins

Neapolitan

I love Chet Atkins, but I avoid Willie Nelson. I guess it took me to see Walk the Line and then Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story to become a full-fledged Johnny Cash fan.

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The Mystic

Everything except Opera really... although I do occasionally watch a bit of Wagner.

Havok

Not much of a country fan from any era of the genre. It got rammed down my throat from my family growing up and pretty much everyone I went to school with.

Zhanteimi

I'm not a fan of thug-bling-byatches hip-hop, and I despise grindcore metal crap. I do listen to them occasionally just so people can't accuse me of not giving them a chance. I try to see what's good musically in them, but I end up hating them all over again each time.