Claudrena N. Harold
When Sunday Comes
Gospel Music in the Soul and Hip-Hop Eras
(University of Illinois Press)

When Sunday Comes is an in-depth look at late-century Gospel music which focuses on artists like Yolanda Adams, Andraé Crouch, The Clark Sisters, Al Green, Take 6, and the Winans, and on the network of black record shops, churches, and businesses that nurtured the music. Author Claudrena N. Harold details the creative shifts, sonic innovations, theological tensions, and political assertions that transformed the music, and revisits the debates within the community over groundbreaking recordings and gospel’s incorporation of rhythm and blues, funk, hip-hop, and other popular forms. At the same time, she details how sociopolitical and cultural developments like the Black Power Movement and the emergence of the Christian Right shaped both the art and attitudes of African American performers. Weaving insightful analysis into a collective biography of Gospel icons, When Sunday Comes explores the music’s essential place as an outlet for African Americans to express their spiritual and cultural selves. The book has been called “an in-depth history of African American gospel music,” by Booklist and “a multi-lensed view of a continually evolving and consistently vibrant art form,” by Library Journal.