Current Search: Christian rock music--History and criticism (x)
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- Title
- Pop Goes the Worship: The Influence of Popular Music on Contemporary Christian Music in the Evangelical Church.
- Creator
- Risi, Patrice, Cunningham, James E., Florida Atlantic University
- Abstract/Description
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Worship music has always existed in church liturgy. The early Roman Catholic Church reserved music for an exclusive group of composers and performers. In rebellion, the common people worshipped privately with prayers in their own vernacular, to secular tunes. Martin Luther's Reformation during the Renaissance solidified worship as a congregational experience and marked the beginning of the Protestant Church. As Europeans and Africans migrated to colonial America, two different streams of...
Show moreWorship music has always existed in church liturgy. The early Roman Catholic Church reserved music for an exclusive group of composers and performers. In rebellion, the common people worshipped privately with prayers in their own vernacular, to secular tunes. Martin Luther's Reformation during the Renaissance solidified worship as a congregational experience and marked the beginning of the Protestant Church. As Europeans and Africans migrated to colonial America, two different streams of music culture developed with interplay between sacred and secular influences. These two streams converged in the 1970s at the point of Contemporary Christian Music (CCM), which imitated the music of pop culture in an effort to be culturally relevant and to evangelize unbelievers. The fundamental evangelical church uses CCM to worship and evangelize by adopting popular music styles and adapting them lyrically to reflect an acceptable spiritual viewpoint to the church and as a magnet to attract unbelievers.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2007
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00000957
- Subject Headings
- Popular music--History and criticism, Evangelicalism--United States, Christianity and culture--United States, Christian rock music--Criticism and interpretation
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- Christian Rock Goes Mainstream: Youth Culture, Politics and Popular Music in the U.S.
- Creator
- Giagnoni, Silvia, Scodari, Christine, Florida Atlantic University
- Abstract/Description
-
The dissertation analyzes Christian rock that goes mainstream and aims to explain such a phenomenon within the contemporary cultural, social and political context. This cultural study acknowledges the inherent tendency of Christian rock “to cross over” as part of the Evangelical ideology in which it is rooted. It also views it as a symptom of the augmented power of conservative Evangelical groups in today’s American political and social climate and of the current, increased presence of...
Show moreThe dissertation analyzes Christian rock that goes mainstream and aims to explain such a phenomenon within the contemporary cultural, social and political context. This cultural study acknowledges the inherent tendency of Christian rock “to cross over” as part of the Evangelical ideology in which it is rooted. It also views it as a symptom of the augmented power of conservative Evangelical groups in today’s American political and social climate and of the current, increased presence of discourses around religion and, specifically, Christianity in the public arena. Hence, the research offers an historical understanding of the social, cultural and discursive changes that have occurred within American Christianity in relation to politics, society and culture since Christian rock’s first appearance as an expression of the Jesus People movement of the 1970s, with the aim of better comprehending the nature of the contemporary crossover phenomenon. Additionally, the study considers rock as a discursive formation, interprets Christian rock as a primarily countercultural phenomenon and addresses the questions its crossover poses. Thus, it explores dimensions and issues highly debated in cultural studies concerning authenticity, resistance, generic labeling, lyrical content, pleasure, and experience. Specifically, it looks at Christian rock “fragments” as receptacles for a multitude of meanings that are constantly negotiated in public discourses. The research finally examines the music industry (marketing strategies, publications, distribution deals, and so forth) in relation to these phenomena, and reports on the interviews with emerging crossover Christian rock bands and other people operating in the industry. By investigating it as part of the larger endeavor of Evangelicals to impact and transform American culture and society, it is illustrated how Christian rock is able today to provide an alternative version of popular music to their own young people and to reach non-believers as well; this suggests further research and, specifically, the necessity of audience analysis, and concomitantly raises thought-provoking questions related to cultural theory. The study also demonstrates how Christian rock, an apparently oxymoronic manifestation of rock culture, is actually reproducing its very logic, thus catalyzing cultural change and symptomatically reflecting neoconservative cultural hegemony and ultimately supporting an emerging definition of rock.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2007
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00000981
- Subject Headings
- Contemporary Christian music--United States, Popular culture--Religious aspects, Popular music--United States--History and criticism, Rock music--Political aspects, Popular music--Social aspects, Christian rock music--History and criticism
- Format
- Document (PDF)
