Urban/contemporary gospel, also known as urban gospel music, urban gospel pop, or just simply urban gospel, is a modern subgenre of gospel music. Although the style developed gradually, early forms are generally dated to the 1970s, and the genre was well established by the end of the 1980s. The radio format is pitched primarily to African-Americans. Christian hip hop can be considered a subtype of this genre.

Protestant hymns and African-American spirituals make up the basic source material for traditional black gospel music, which in turn is the most significant source of urban/contemporary gospel. Urban/contemporary gospel has kept the spiritual focus of the traditional black gospel music, but uses modern musical forms.

Urban/contemporary gospel derives primarily from traditional black gospel music, with strong influence from, and strong influence on, many forms of secular pop music. Due to strong racial divisions in 20th century American culture, urban/contemporary gospel developed specifically out of the African-American musical traditions. The equivalent music from white American culture is contemporary Christian music. Although the racial lines have blurred in some areas, particularly with urban musical styles, these divisions are still evident in the industry. The color line divides artists with extremely similar musical styles on the basis of their race, and unites artists with divergent styles (such as rap and pop) on the same basis in industry reporting, marketing choices, and awards like the Grammy and Dove awards.

During the 1960s and 1970s and 1980s, hit songs like The Clark Sisters' "You Brought the Sunshine" Edwin Hawkins' "Oh Happy Day" and Andrae Crouch's "Take Me Back" were significant milestones in the development of urban/contemporary gospel music. Edwin Hawkins is called the "godfather of contemporary gospel" and Twinkie Clark is called the "Mother Of Contemporary Gospel".

In the 1980s and 1990s, some gospel groups (such as The Rance Allen Group) emerged by singing with elements of Motown sound, emulating quartets such as The Temptations but still propagating biblical messages. The members of many such groups later established their own gospel music careers (but still returned for occasional reunions). For example, Marvin Sapp and Fred Hammond started out in the group Commissioned. New artists like Yolanda Adams, the Clark Sisters, Donnie McClurkin, and Kirk Franklin's Nu Nation gained popularity in the secular world with their musical style.

Other groups and individual artists such as Hezekiah Walker took gospel congregational songs from the 1950s and 1960s and adapted them to a more upbeat feel similar to '80s and '90s pop. Examples of this include "99 ½" by Walker and the Love Fellowship Crusade Choir.

Many artists who began in the 1960s and 1970s (like the aforementioned Andrae Crouch and The Clark Sisters) also continued to release influential songs and albums in this period.

In the 2000s, many gospel artists from the previous two decades began establishing records and gaining established places in the gospel music canon, as recognized by annual WOW Gospel albums (after beginning in the late 1990s). They were accompanied by younger gospel artists/groups like Mary Mary, Sheri Jones-Moffett and Brian Courtney Wilson, who leaned the genre towards hip-hop, funk and '90s R&B, respectively.