Urban Contemporary Gospel

Urban Contemporary Gospel is the form of African American gospel music that, from the mid-1980s, adopted the sounds of contemporary R&B, hip hop and pop. Groups such as *The Winans* and *Commissioned* and the a cappella *Take 6* replaced the traditional choir-and-organ format with synthesizers, drum programming and polished studio production, while soloists including *BeBe & CeCe Winans*, *Yolanda Adams* and *Mary Mary* addressed everyday life as well as devotion. *Kirk Franklin*'s choir-led recordings of the 1990s carried the style to the top of the pop charts, narrowing the commercial distance between gospel and secular Black popular music.