'The walls have come down considerably over the past few years when it comes to the divide between the Christian audience, the Christian market and mainstream consumers'.
This statement shows the incorporation of Christian pop into mainline music charts, so the music not only appeals to Christ followers, but also attracts an 'audience' beyond Christian adherents. It also underlines the increasing role of the public marketplace in spreading the gospel message.
Not all of the performers crashing down the walls agree with view. In fact, Religion and Ethics Newsweekly correspondent Kim Lawton, when discussing the Christian popster TobyMac, says that 'for him, it’s not about cranking out hits and making money, but rather watching how God uses the music to touch people’s lives'.
My contention is that a pop form of Christian music is a contemporary update of the role of 'traditional' religious and spiritual music. Faith-centred music is designed to move people, to touch their lives, and to enflower their spirit. Faith-centred music is sacred. It connects people to their conception of the divine, and to beauty.
What's new, however, is the shift from the pulpit to mainline pop. When Swedish House Mafia (SHM) sing: 'Don't you worry child, See heaven's got a plan for you', does the general audience hear that their song carries a strong Christian message?
Gone but not forgotten, SHM band member Steve Angello, talked to the Huffington Post about his reasons for the band's break up (Makarechi 2012). He mentioned being 'sick of fans who assume his job is easy' and explained 'why big business will never get a grip on electronic dance music' (or EDM).
To highlight his disenchantment with the industry and its groping tallons, Angello says that every day he receives 'the weirdest calls' from mega-corporations seeking a relationship with the band. He continues:
'And I'm like "how?" They will tell me they just want to "get into the EDM space." But they'll be, like, selling trimmers. "But you have a beard!" Yeah but, what do you want me to do? Shave on camera so you can tell people all the dance acts use Phillips?'
Religion theorists Carrette and King (2012) in their article, Spirituality and the rebranding of religion, make a serious attack on what they describe as 'Corporate Capitalism'. They argue, and it's a forthright stance they seem to take, that big business involvement in religion 'strips [its] assets by plundering its material and cultural resources' (Carrette and King 2012:64). They fear that religion is experiencing a takeover and in the process, loses something of its traditions.
I would argue differently. Religion is also a business in the contemporary western market-driven world. In fact, the recently-launched cableTV History Channel's hit, The Bible, has already drawn millions of viewers; it's a ratings bonanza. Enshrined in a kind of 'swords and sandals' movie genre, this epic series is filled with over-hyped ochestration, enough to send hearts and souls a-soaring ... well, perhaps....
Sacred music is an umbrella term for myriad music genres that do more than just 'touch' us. They take us on a journey into the transcendent or self-transcendence. We travel on what Geoff Woods, the ABC broadcaster, terms 'The Rhythm Divine', a kind of lyrical magic carpet that takes us to new worlds and strange realms of enchantment, the sacred and again, to beauty.
Woods' radio show explores both 'contemporary sacred sounds and the world’s devotional music' (ABC Radio National 2013). It was on Woods' program that I first heard the Melbourne Muslim hip hop group Brothahood with their moving tale featuring Hannah Magar, We are Egyptians. It used to be viewable online, but only the sound remains to open our hearts and memories to the upswelling of Arab Spring and its outcome in Egypt.
Magar sings - 'It's a new day, a new world, a new Egypt. This is the determination of the makers of the pyramids. We had a dream, we were ready to die for defending....'
The link between the hip hop message of Magar and The Brothahood, or the Christian-inspired pop of TobyMac or EDM of Swedish House Mafia, honours their fervency for God and their profound relationship with their faith and the sacred.
Questions
- How do you envisage the argument of Carrette and King (2012)? Is it a question of diluting religion through 'Corporate Capitalism' or an enhancing of religion as the message is spread in different mediums?
- What does the term sacred music mean to you?
- Do you have a favourite band or performer who wears their religion on their sleeve or in their music message? Discuss and analyse their role in supporting their sense of what is divine, sacred or special.
References
- ABC Radio National. 2013. The Rhythm Divine.http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/rhythmdivine/about/
- Carrette J. and R. King. 2012. Spirituality and the re-branding of religion. In G.Lynch, Ed., Religion, media, culture. New York: Routledge.
- Mainstream Christian music. 2013. Religion and Ethics Newsweekly. Feb 8, 2013.
- Makarechi K. 2012. Steve Angello on why Swedish House Mafia broke up, new music & what Nnew fans don't understand. Huffington Post, Sept 14, 2012.
- We are Egyptian REMIX (Hannah Magar feat. The Brothahood). 2012. http://brothahood.bandcamp.com/track/we-are-egyptian-remix-hannah-magar-feat-the-brothahood
Image source
http://pixabay.com/en/silhouette-people-personal-human-78407/
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