Recently, I was sent an article that was written by music editor Tony Cummings for the Cross Rhythms platform, penned back in August. The point or intention of the writing was not quite direct, it appeared to be Cummings simply laying out his ‘thoughts’ regarding Music Charts and Playlists – particularly focusing on UK systems. There did not seem to be a catalyst, call to action or an evident beneficial enlightening aspect to the writing. There was however, for me, a number of problematic statements made that I felt needed a public response. For full clarity, it is advised you read it for yourself, though I will try my best to catch you up to speed and provide as much context as possible for those who may choose not to.
The Black and White Divide
The late Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King once said “it is appalling that the most segregated hour in Christian America is 11 o’clock on Sunday morning” – referring to the issue of race relations within the Church community. There is enough evidence to prove this is still very much a problem in the Christian faith and society, today (including Christian-centric music). And sadly, the tone and contents of Cummings’ article serves as yet another unfortunate but real reminder.
After laying out his introduction, Tony touched on some ‘music chart’ history, stating that “the first pop chart was published by New Musical Express (NME) Magazine in 1953” – though it was actually in ’52 (matter of fact, the very first chart was released on November 15, 1952 with Al Martino’s Capitol records release ‘Here In My Heart‘ debuting as the very first UK number one single). He then goes on to mention that “A few years ago, Billboard took the controversial decision to classify religious music made by predominantly Caucasian artists as “Christian” and music recorded by black artists as “gospel”, and the two different charts have since coexisted side by side“. I am unsure what sources the Cross Rhythms writer used to verify this (as he didn’t include any references in the entire article, minus when he attributed quotes), however this particular excerpt is rather misleading and quite frankly, untrue. The ‘decision’ to classify the two genres as such was not made by Billboard, anymore than it was ‘their decision’ to classify rap music as ‘Hip Hop’.
According to the 2011 book ‘A House Divided? Christian Music in Black and White‘, jointly authored by Omotayo Banjo and Kesha Williams (which I’d encourage Cummings to read), ‘Contemporary Christian Music’ (originally called ‘Jesus Music’) became known as such as a result of the ‘Jesus movement‘ that took place on the West Coast of the United States during the late 60s – early 70s era. Although music critic Ron Moore is famously credited with first coining the ‘CCM’ term in his 1976 review of a Richie Furay album, one of the earliest recorded uses of the phrase was actually in volume 70-71 of The Walther League Journal fifteen years prior, in 1961. The Gospel Music sound, on the other hand, can be dated back to as early as the 17th century. A number of credible sources, including the book ‘People Get Ready! A New History of Black Gospel Music‘ by Bob Darden, cite that the first published use of the term ‘Gospel song’ was by famous singer-songwriter Philip Bliss in 1874. Billboard started listing these genres in 1963 (for Gospel – centuries after it’s formation and almost 100 years after it gained its name) and 1980 (for Christian/CCM, almost two decades after the sound was birthed and named). However back then, Billboard’s ‘Top Christian Albums’ (CCM) Chart was labelled as ‘Top Inspirational Albums’ and ‘Gospel’ was simply labelled as ‘Top Gospel Albums’. Even back then (prior to Billboard’s inclusion), the clear divide between ‘white’ and ‘back’ in both genres was evident and had already existed, long before the ‘Top Inspirational Albums’ Chart was later rebranded as ‘Top Christian Albums’ just a few years back. Thus, the ‘decision’ to ‘name’ them what they did had nothing to do with Billboard and everything to do with historical culture.
Later in the same paragraph, Cummings points out that the Official Charts in the UK “makes no such distinction“, referring to the fact that they (unlike Billboard) list Christian & Gospel Music under the same chart – which he calls a “commendable decision”. I can only assume by ‘commendable’ he was implying that there is apparently some issue with Billboard dividing charts between “black” and “white” christian-centric music, but that the UK Chart was ‘rightfully’ not doing so. The problem with that is, it is quite a misguided viewpoint. The ‘commendable decision’ is unrelated to the above, and is a lot more connected to content quantity; there is simply not enough Gospel albums released weekly for it to have a standalone chart. Additionally, a large number of Gospel artists are independent of the label support given to many of the well-known British CCM acts, and they do not always register their releases with Millward Brown (making them ineligible to chart – an infrastructural, educational issue).
A ‘rude’ awakening?
I do agree with Cummings that the lack of Gospel representation on the UK chart ‘has been a severe wake up call for the UK Gospel world‘ – though it should be noted that Britain is not the only place where CCM heavily outperforms Gospel. Just to give perspective, For King & Country’s last album (released October 2018) debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Top ‘Christian’ Albums Chart with 62,000 album equivalent units. On the flip side, The Voice alumni Koryn Hawthorne’s debut effort “‘Unstoppable” (released July 2018 via RCA Inspiration/Sony Music) landed the #1 spot on Billboard’s Top Gospel Albums with just 2,000 album equivalent units. Withstanding, it’s very clear to see this is not just a UK issue – as even in the US, Gospel Music would struggle to compete on the same chart as CCM.
UCB Broadcaster Mike Rimmer also chimed in on the conversation, echoing Tony’s thoughts – making some interesting claims himself in the process. Rimmer suggested that the UK’s Afro-Caribbean Gospel Community ‘did all the groundwork‘ and were apparently ‘the main pressure group in pushing for a chart‘. He says this is the reason why it is “ironic that now that they have one, there’s hardly ever a gospel record on there“. Again, I’m not sure where either of these two ‘media’ individuals gather some of their info from, but in terms of ‘pressure groups’ in getting a chart, I would definitely counter argue that that was not in fact the UK Afro-Caribbean gospel community (though they were certainly represented by a ‘pressure person’ in GMIA’s Juliet Fletcher – who was extremely instrumental in this initiative). Matter of fact, Cummings himself quotes the Official Charts Company’s Lauren Kreisler in the article as saying that “the Christian & Gospel Chart originated from conversations with Christian labels“. However, there are no notable labels within UK Gospel music – at least none large enough to influence conversations with a company like OCC. So, who exactly was Rimmer referring to? Because upon launching the chart, there was only one Christian & Gospel Music company/label quoted in the official press release, featured on the Official Charts Company website – being Integrity Music. Coupled with what Lauren Kreisley confirmed regarding how the chart came about, it seems the sole ‘pressure group’ may not have been who Mike thought it was – unless of course he was oddly referring to one individual, i.e. Fletcher, as a “group”.
I say that not to say there is any issue with being a ‘pressure group’ – because in this case, it is actually a good and very positive thing. It was Rimmer’s insinuation that the British Gospel Community solely pushed for something to happen that they’re not even at a level where they can benefit from it, why I felt the need to clarify that.
Man in the mirror
Corroborating with the theme of Mike Rimmer’s comments above, when discussing the concept of charts, Cummings later quoted him in the article saying: “I think it’s true to say that the black community, both in the USA and the UK, are fascinated by charts, playlists and awards ceremonies. It would take a better social historian than myself to explain why this is so, but both consumers and artists really want to know who’s got the top seller in their field, or who’s likely to win the next MOBO Award.”
With respect, the only thing I could agree with in that quote was the fact that he admitted he is not the most qualified person to speak on this matter – because quite frankly, his blindsided remarks prove that he is not. To suggest that the black community are “fascinated by charts, playlists and awards” is quite possibly the most ironic and dare I say ignorant comment made throughout the entire piece.
Rimmer mentions charts. The world’s most respected music charts are listed by Billboard magazine, a white-founded and owned company. The most sought-after music radio playlists in the UK are BBC Radio 2 and 1’s (respectively), a white-founded company which features predominantly white artists and is curated by mostly white disc jockeys and executives. The most respected music awards ceremony is the Grammy Awards and, in the Christian world, the Dove Awards – both white-founded and run initiatives (The Recording Academy and the Gospel Music Association), which mostly awards white artists from white-owned record companies, and features mostly white performers – not unlike the UK’s BRIT Awards (for which all three major white-owned labels host after parties post-show every year to celebrate their mostly white roster’s wins of the night).
Like many other ‘Black’ companies and organizations, ‘Black’ awards ceremonies (such as the MOBOs, BETs, etc) were birthed out of the lack of inclusion of black talent in the already-established award shows – remember the whole #BritsSoWhite controversy just a few short years ago? (you know, for those of you that think racism is a ‘thing of the past’). As a result of this, the black community mobilized and decided to create their own initiatives to celebrate the under-represented talent within our communities. Considering this history and context, for a White media personnel (Rimmer) to then specifically call out Blacks and insinuate that we are any more ‘impressed’ by charts, awards and playlists than any other group of people is completely beyond my understanding and is almost suggestive of the fact that only whites are permitted to ‘get excited’ about such honours. I would hope that this is not true, but sadly it is consistent with the rather ‘superior’ tone of the entire article.
Triple standards
What is even more perplexing is that Cummings inserted Rimmer’s quote just after he had finished singling out Premier Gospel Radio for being ‘one of the few UK-based Christian radio stations which publishes their playlist on their website‘ calling the station an “Afro-Caribbean” subsidiary of Premier Christian Radio. All in all, the section was seemingly implying that Cummings felt Rimmer was correct in suggesting the black community are ‘fascinated by charts, playlists and awards‘, using Premier Gospel’s playlist publishing activity as an obscure example. Despite this, at separate places in the article Cummings appears to legitimise public playlists by white-owned stations, i.e. BBC Radio 1 and Cross Rhythms Radio (funny). One must wonder what the ‘difference’ between these two networks and Premier Gospel is. Personally, I can only think of one. I did appreciate the fact that Cummings admitted later in the piece that “Industry people and music fans alike have a fascination with lists“, making it clear it is not just a ‘black thing’ – as Rimmer appeared to imply. However Cummings’ placement of Rimmer’s quote is still rather eyebrow-raising, to say the least.
On that same note, I did find Tony referring to Premier Gospel by race/nationality quite alarming, considering he did not once use ethnicity as a way of referring to any persons or company he mentioned in the article that was either white or white-owned – including the Official Charts Company, Mike Rimmer, Steve Perry, Cross Rhythms and BBC Radio 1. He also made certain to refer to StepFWD Founder O’Neil Dennis as a “British Jamaican”, when detailing his view of the Step FWD UK Christian Chart. Again, no-one/nothing else in the piece was referred to by race or nationality. Selah.
Speaking of the StepFWD Chart, there is some criticism of the listing given in the article in question. Cummings claims ‘some industry figures would argue that it’s not really a chart at all‘. He does not however, provide any information on what he feels qualifies a listing to be a ‘chart’ nor what this theory is based on. Thus, it was not quite clear what the root of his criticism here was. He did however mention that ‘there are hundreds of tracks being released in the UK which are never submitted to aStepFWD‘. Though it is very possible that this is true, he offers no verifiable data or information on how he came to this conclusion. Additionally, his assertion that “aStepFwd judges might be able to add a few standout tracks that they become aware of to the list of submissions“, made me wonder if he understands the submission process of the chart. In particular, his choice of the word ‘compiled’, just before he inserted O’Neil’s quote (that only spoke of how the chart is judged) also raises questions about the conversation the two of them had regarding the chart, versus what was included in the article. From my understanding, submissions for the UK Christian Chart are open for all, not just the judges. The potential misunderstanding on that may have been what contributed to Tony’s critical opinion, however I doubt it would made much of a difference to his perspective had that been any clearer to him – if it was not already.
Also weighing in on the concept of the StepFWD listing in the article was Steve Perry, founder and broadcaster on Access Radio, who Cummings quoted as saying: “Using the term ‘UK’ implies two things: that the chart is a fair representation of everyone in the UK who listens to Christian music, and that it includes as wide a range as possible of Christian music artists listened to nationally. The problem is that neither of these are quite accurate“. That may be Perry’s opinion of the inclusion of the term ‘UK’, but on doing just a little research – which should not be unusual to him as an experienced media personnel, he would discover the term was included because the chart is exclusive to music coming out of the UK, and not for any other reason. Using Perry’s logic of semantics, one could argue that his ‘Access Radio’ using the term ‘radio’ in it’s name is quite off-base too, as it is not a network that is transmitted via radio waves, but only by webcasting – and thus some would argue it’s not a radio station at all.
Broadening the horizon
It is unfortunate that neither Cummings nor Perry acknowledged the fact that whilst not perfect and thus deserving of criticism, the StepFWD listing has become a great, consistent resource in discovering newly-released UK Christian & Gospel Music that may have otherwise never been represented in such a way. Admittedly, there are some updates that could be made to the ‘process’ to improve the way the chart is calculated, which I may suggest to them. It is important to consider though, that due to the fact that C&G is still very much a niche, ‘underground’ genre in the UK, the systems and strategies used may not yet fare as equivalents to those used in the mainstream music industry – but the reality is, the sector is just not ‘there’ yet and should be judged accordingly.
Concluding, it was disappointing that an experienced writer like Cummings appeared to display what I thought was rather poor, biased and un-researched journalism in attempting to communicate his thoughts on the current state of Music Charts and Playlists. Next time, it might come across a little more balanced if the people Tony interviews to validate his points (Perry and Rimmer) were not just all old friends who used to work for the same platform he wrote the article for (Cross Rhythms) – which ironically, he did not mention. After all, I was able to write this entire piece without speaking to a single person – but still was able to reference solid sources to hold up my views. In doing so, I would hope that I have been able to provide some alternative insight on a number of the points made throughout. However, my ultimate hope here is that both the Christian & Gospel UK industries are able to move forward with more unity and understanding – acknowledging, honouring and celebrating one another’s achievements and milestones along the journey of delivering quality and inspiring music to fans of the genres around the world.
