c. 1998 Religion News Service
UNDATED _ It’s not just peacocks that preen. On Thursday (April 23), the Dove Awards _ Christian music’s answer to the Grammys _ will celebrate the gospel industry’s biggest year with a star-studded televised gala.
In an effort to gain increased media exposure, the Gospel Music Association has asked”New Age”instrumentalist John Tesh and country matriarch Naomi Judd _ both mainstream secular artists who have been outspoken about their Christian faith _ to co-host the 29th annual Dove Awards, to be broadcast (6 p.m. EDT) on The Nashville Network.
The effort has paid off, says Frank Breeden, GMA president, noting”Entertainment Tonight,””Good Morning America,”and CNN will cover the event.”The media coverage is unprecedented,”said Breeden, 41, a pastor’s son who has been involved in gospel music”from day one”and who is wrapping up his first year as GMA’s president.
A highlight of the Dove broadcast will be an appearance by Whitney Houston, who will perform”I Go to the Rock”_ a song from her”The Preacher’s Wife”soundtrack _ with the Georgia Mass Choir. “The award show is our flagship program through which we reach out to the world,”Breeden said.”We’re not televising a church service. It’s an entertainment property, and it has to compete with similar awards shows.” The Dove Awards conclude the five-day Gospel Music Week, GMA’s annual Nashville confab, which gives an estimated 2,000 registrants a chance to attend workshops in six different tracks, including radio, retailing, concert promotion, video, songwriting and recording.
This year’s event also gives industry insiders plenty of opportunities to crow about Christian music’s stunning growth.
According to SoundScan, the service that tracks retail music sales, the industry grew by 32 percent last year. Thanks to artists like Bob Carlisle, Kirk Franklin and God’s Property, Amy Grant, Jars of Clay, Point of Grace, dc Talk and Leann Rimes _ a country artist whose”You Light Up My Life”album was the year’s best-selling gospel album _ there were 44 million gospel albums sold last year, up from 33 million in 1996.
Much of Christian music’s 1997 growth was spawned by a 63 percent sales increase in mainstream retail outlets like Wal-Mart, Kmart, Blockbuster and Musicland, all of which are currently sporting Dove-related promotional materials.
Breeden said Christian music currently outsells jazz, classical and New Age genres, and can experience even more growth if labels do a better job at marketing.”We’re like a business which has outgrown its facilities, and now it’s time to build a new building,”he said.
When the GMA was founded in 1964, gospel music meant mostly southern gospel. When the first Dove Awards were handed out in 1969, they went to groups like the Imperials, the Blackwood Brothers, the Speers, and Bill Gaither.
Gaither is still around. The Gaither Vocal Band’s”Lovin’ God and Lovin’ Each Other”album has been nominated for a southern gospel Dove. But diversity is the industry watchword now, with new bluegrass and Spanish-language categories rounding out the Dove nominations in an unprecedented 44 categories. “BloodSpilla,”a novel retelling of Jesus’s crucifixion, is nominated in the rap/hip hop song category. Modern rock/alternative nominees include the bands Audio Adrenaline, Sixpence None the Richer, Chem6A and Smalltown Poets.
Instrumental album nominees include the release”Sax for the Soul”and”Invention,”an album featuring guitarists Phil Keaggy, Wes King and Scott Dente. “Our commonality is faith-based lyrics, but those can be set in all kinds of popular music,”says Breeden.”Our diversity is an archetype of what should happen in the body of Christ day by day.” Artists receiving the most nominations include Steven Curtis Chapman, Kirk Franklin, dc Talk, Jars of Clay, Kathy Troccoli, and newcomer Chris Rice. Rich Mullins, who died last fall in a car accident, received five nominations and will be the subject of a tribute during the Dove Awards broadcast.
With everything looking up, there’s nothing to ruffle the feathers of industry insiders except the threats of success itself.
Last October 31 (Reformation Day), veteran recording artist Steve Camp issued a”A Call for Reformation in the Contemporary Christian Music Industry,”a 107-point document that chastises artists and executives for abandoning a commitment to ministry for”a Christ-less, watered-down, pabulum-based, positive alternative, aura-fluff, cream of wheat, mush-kind-of-syrupy, God-as-my-girlfriend kind of thing.” But Breeden said he’s not troubled about concerns of”combining art with commerce with religion.””Those tensions have been around since the first wealthy aristocrat in Europe commissioned an artist to paint a fresco on a ceiling,”he said.”We have arrived at the mission field and it’s time for us to be the missionaries we were called to be.”
Eds: A complete listing of Dove Award nominees can be found at http://www.doveawards.com. The Dove Awards will be simulcast over the Internet (http://www.lightsource.net)
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