Document Type
Article
Abstract
My paper addresses the intersections of the American popular music star system, Black female Gospel singers, Gospel Music, and the exilic consciousness of the Sanctified Church with special attention to life and music of Gospelwoman Priscilla Marie “CeCe” Winans Love. I argue that CeCe Winans and the marketing campaign for Winans’ album Let Them Fall in Love, is indicative of the encroachment of American popular music’s star system into self-elected “exiled” Gospel Music and into the lives of “exiled” Gospelwomen. Gospelwomen are 20th and 21st century urban African American Protestant Christian women who are paid for singing Gospel Music and who have recorded at least one Gospel album for national distribution. The self-elected exile of Gospelwomen refers to their decision to live a life based on the values of the Kingdom of God while encountering and negotiating opposing values in American popular culture. Gospelwomen and Gospel Music are impacted by the demands of stardom in America’s celebrity culture which includes achieved success and branding. Gospelwomen negotiate these components of stardom molding them into mechanisms that conform to their beliefs and needs.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Repository Citation
Nelson, Angela, ""At This Age, This Is Who I Am": CeCe Winans, Exilic Consciousness, and the American Popular Music Star System" (2018). School of Cultural & Critical Studies Faculty Publications. 2.
https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/sccs_pub/2
Publication Date
2018
Publication Title
Open Cultural Studies
Publisher
De Gruyter
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1515/culture-2018-0043
Volume
2
Issue
1
Start Page No.
475
End Page No.
485