The Harvard Gazette sat down with Professor Charrise Barron for a Q&A about her teaching, and current book project.
GAZETTE: Could you talk about your current book project, which was the focus of your research leave?
Excerpt, Harvard Gazette
BARRON: My current book project is called “The Platinum Age of Gospel.” That’s 1993 to 2013. I’m naming that era the “Platinum Age” because it shows succession from the “Golden Age” of gospel, which was 1945 to 1965. It speaks to an incredible amount of commercial success that a number of gospel artists were experiencing in a relatively short period of time; there were a great number of platinum-selling gospel albums in the platinum age. I make the case that something different is happening in that era from previous eras of gospel music, even though we tend to see a kind of cyclical process in which gospel music is cutting-edge, churches reject the music, eventually churches accept the music, and the cycle happens over again.