The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #117785   Message #2542401
Posted By: Azizi
18-Jan-09 - 02:39 PM
Thread Name: Black Church Services
Subject: RE: Black Church Services
Here is an example of a choir leader testifying while feeling the spirit:

UNCP Gospel Choir Praise Break 1

RelSi1215
June 09, 2008

"Praise Break at UNCP Voices Of Serenity's Spring Concert. Ole' Skool moment at the end w/ The Lord Is Blessing Me. Y'all know how those mass choirs and workshop choirs used to do! LOL!"

-snip-

UNCP" is an abbreviation for the University of North Carolina at Pembroke

**

Somewhat off-topic:

A number of these comments from viewers of YouTube videos reflect the common use of "hip-hop" words, phrases, and spelling. In my opinion, hip-hop language is greatly influenced by sounding out words "phonics". The result is that vernacular words are spelled closer to the way that they are pronounced. While the mainstream pronounciation is usually retained, the updated spelling gives the word a "cooler", more "with it" look. Using these new spellings, people signal that they are "hip", "cool", "fresh", "down with it", "phat" or what ever word means something superlative has taken the place of those retired words.

But as you may have noticed, hip-hop languaging might also mean that a word whose spelling is close to its pronunciation, like "fat", is changed to "phat". In that case, a different meaning is given to that word {one meaning for "phat" is that someone has "blown up", is "living large", has "made it big", is "hot", is "dynamite", is "off the hook", is "off the chain" etc [There really is a method to and reasoning behind African American slang].

All of this to say :o) that instead of saying that the music is a revival of a old, largely retired style, the viewers to these gospel videos wrote that the music was "old skool". Some viewers wrote that the large choir processionals were "old skool." And some fplks mentioned that playing the washboard was "old skool". Notice that instead of writing the word "school" the mainstream way, that word is written "skool", which is actually closer to the way that word is pronounced...

I'll leave that digression there, but thought that I'd better mention it since the word "old skool" has come up repeatedly in those YouTube comments.