Thursday 30 August 2012

Is Christian music too predictable?

I'm preparing for a talk on music and theology (not particularly on Christian music, mind you, but on music in general and its place in creation). This very interesting quote from theologian Jeremy Begbie came up:
Christian Contemporary Music (CCM) is an enormous industry, and some would argue that it has succumbed in an alarming way to the co-opting of religion into the commercial interests of consumption, capitalism, and materialism.... It is disappointing, for example, to find an intense musical conservatism in much of the contemporary worship scene. (Resounding Truth, 256)
He admits that simplicity and accessibility is part of the point of church music, but goes on to issue a challenge:
Is the church prepared to give its musicians room to experiment (and fail), to juxtapose different styles, to educate themselves in music history, to resist the tendency to rely on formulas that "work" with minimum effort and can quickly guarantee seats filled in church -- and all this in order that congregational worship can become more theologically responsible, more true to teh God who has given us such abundant potential for developing fresh musical sounds? (Resounding Truth, 256)
Are we too conservative in pushing the boundaries of musical creativity? Or are we simply doing the right thing of serving the church where they're at (not getting stuck up our own guitarsenal developing music which is so complicated and foreign that your average pew-sitter cannot understand what's happening let alone join in)?

7 comments:

  1. Depends on what you determine the purpose of music in church to be. I don't think it's suitable to push the boundaries of creativity, but I do think that we can push what churches are comfortable with.

    (not sure if that makes sense...)

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  2. I think that is the point...that the music in church is for a purpose, for people to join in and encourage each other with. If the style or structure of the music is too out there people will see it just as a performance rather than something they are a part of. Music is such a great tool for uniting people in heart and mind, and voice...it would be a shame to abandon the stylistic elements that we know "work" to this end, for the sake of me being able to be more creative with my composition and arrangement....don't you think? Thanks for your good blogging topics by the way!
    Rozzy B

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  3. Yes and no. Church Music (CM) goes through stages. New idea comes, develops and gets predictable, mostly coz it works. Then culture moves, CM waits 20 years (or more) and moves on. Christians are conservative so our music will be too and that's ok. The danger we face is refusing to change altogether. So yeah, there should always be a dangerous, outward focused edge to church music. I could write an essay about church music, but I won't. Suffice to say, everything we do at church at some level needs to reflect the mission we take part in with Jesus... not just words, but actions, style and our art.
    P.s. Massive props to you and your wife for the SMH.

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  4. Mark "Bainesy" Baines30 August 2012 at 19:21

    I think I miss the point at which being more creative becomes "more theologically responsible". Is that just because God made (some of) us creative? Or is Begbie saying the music that gets bums on pews is theologically irresponsible? And is he then saying that the reason it gets bums on seats is because it is bad theologically? What??

    Otherwise, I agree that church music is often "safe" which makes it "boring". We could probably stand to push the boundaries a little bit, just to keep people engaging with what songs we are singing rather than settling into a nice comfortable rut.
    Probably need to err on the side of being inclusive, though.

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  5. I like how Greg Attwell's frustration with the bland-ness of CCM has led him back to old hymns.

    Question: does musical creativity have to mean more complex?

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  6. Read the great post made by Michael Gungor:
    http://gungormusic.com/2011/11/zombies-wine-and-christian-music/

    Also, the great blog, Indigenous Worship:
    http://indigenousworship.com/

    Both deal with the topic at hand. I think just like any industry, there is a tendency to "play it safe". As CCM has gotten bigger artists and labels are certainly finding a formula that works and regurgitating it. The problem is, many worship leaders take these acts as their cue, and the regurgitate that regurgitation. Vicious circle. There's certainly acts out there that are working through this problem though. John Mark McMillan immediately comes to mind. Derek Webb is another. The aforementioned Gungor, another.

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  7. Hmmm I have another question:
    How often should you seek to introduce new songs?

    I was talking to another musician I serve with and she said it felt like we were playing the same songs over and over again.

    What do you think is a good sized pool of music to choose from and how important is it to have a non-repeating feel to music at church?

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