Gospel music's roots reach back to the spirituals sung by enslaved African Americans and to nineteenth century African American hymnody, but the genre in its recognizable modern form is usually dated to the early twentieth century, with composer and performer Thomas A. Dorsey, a former blues musician who turned to sacred composition, widely credited as a foundational figure who helped establish gospel's characteristic blending of blues and jazz musical idioms with explicitly religious lyrical content, composing widely known songs still performed today. The genre developed and diversified significantly through the twentieth century across different regional and denominational contexts, producing distinct styles including the quartet tradition of male vocal groups, the large choir tradition associated with major urban congregations, and, from the mid twentieth century, contemporary gospel incorporating instrumentation and production techniques closer to popular music, all while retaining gospel's core emphasis on testimony, praise and communal participation.
Major figures including Mahalia Jackson, widely regarded as one of gospel's most influential vocalists, helped bring the genre to national and international audiences well beyond its original church context during the mid twentieth century, and gospel music has remained closely intertwined with the African American church, civil rights history and broader American popular music ever since, a living tradition still actively composed, performed and recorded today rather than a historical genre alone.