Detroit is famous for its many outstanding choirs and directors, such as Thomas Whitfield and The Thomas Whitfield Company. Photo courtesy of Michigan State University Museum.
Two of Detroit's most popular contemporary groups, The Winans and The Clark Sisters, in performance together. Photos courtesy of Maybelline Williams, Totally Gospel.
During the 1980's Detroit became known as the "Gospel Music Capital of the World," but Detroit has long been an integral part of gospel's development, thanks to an abundance of gifted singers, composers, and instrumentalists.
The early history of Detroit's gospel community has yet to be documented fully. Like other northern industrial cities, Detroit has had a thriving quartet tradition since at least the early 1930's, when a capella "jubilee" quartets were popularized through radio broadcasts, church, and community programs. Various popular musical styles, such as Rhythm and Blues, Soul, Motown, and more recently, Rap, each have influenced and been influenced by the sound of gospel soloists, groups and choirs.
Today, Detroit is a nationally recognized gospel mecca, known for its mass choirs and talented directors, its award-winning record artists, composers, and arrangers, and as the birthplace of the Gospel Music Workshop of America, the largest organization of its kind in the United States, founded by the Reverend James Cleveland in 1967.
