Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>This chapter examines the semiotic implications of gospel stylization in British popular music through a focused analysis of Coldplay’s NPR Tiny Desk performance with the For Love Choir. It interrogates how gospel stylization (particularly the presence of the gospel choir) functions as a topical signifier and index within secular musical contexts, especially when used by artists uninitiated in the gospel tradition. Using topic theory and Peircean semiotics, the chapter demonstrates that gospel codes, grounded in the culture of the Black church, offer further connotations when they enter the popular imagination. It explores how gospel stylization acquires layered meanings when decoupled from its original theological roots, functioning instead as a flexible set of musical gestures. The chapter frames these musical borrowings within the ongoing debates about cultural transmission and recontextualization, revealing how gospel’s aesthetic and emblematic potential is negotiated in the global music industry.</jats:p>