Choir R&B
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Choir R&B places massed voices inside R&B and gospel-soul production: stacked harmonies, church choirs, call-and-response, handclaps, modulations, soloist-versus-choir drama and grooves that can sit beside hip-hop, pop or contemporary gospel. The choir gives scale and communal authority. Even when the track is modern, the emotional message is that one voice is being carried by many.
History
Gospel choirs influenced soul from the start, but modern choir R&B took shape through Andrae Crouch, Edwin Hawkins, The Clark Sisters, Sounds of Blackness, Kirk Franklin, Hezekiah Walker and later Chance the Rapper, Kanye West's Sunday Service and R&B artists sampling or featuring choir textures. The style keeps reappearing because a choir can instantly turn private feeling into public witness.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- Gospel choir histories
- contemporary gospel and hip-hop gospel coverage
- artist discographies
- Billboard gospel archives