What Makes Popular Christian Music “Popular”?: a comparison between current US-American contemporary Christian music and German popular Christian music using the examples of Lauren Daigle and Koenige & Priester
The article discusses the question “What makes Popular Christian Music ‘popular’?” by applying different (competing) concepts of the term “popular” so as to showcase by which criteria Popular Christian Music (labelled as Contemporary Christian Music by the US music industry) can be described as “pop...
| Published in: | Journal for religion, film and media |
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| Subtitles: | Act Two. What Makes Popular Christian Music “Popular” |
| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Institut f. Fundamentaltheologie
[2020]
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| In: |
Journal for religion, film and media
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| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
USA
/ New religious music
/ Popularization
/ Germany
B Daigle, Lauren 1991- / New religious music B Koenige & Priester (Music group) / New religious music |
| RelBib Classification: | CE Christian art ZB Sociology |
| Further subjects: | B
Popular Music
B Lauren Daigle (singer) B Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) B United States of America B Religion B Popular Christian Music (PCM) B Koenige & Priester (band) B Lyrics |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (doi) Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | The article discusses the question “What makes Popular Christian Music ‘popular’?” by applying different (competing) concepts of the term “popular” so as to showcase by which criteria Popular Christian Music (labelled as Contemporary Christian Music by the US music industry) can be described as “popular”. Thereby, the article compares both Anglo-American and German-language Christian songs by means of close reading using the examples of the German band Koenige & Priester [Kings & Priests] and US singer Lauren Daigle. Through the presented exemplary analyses, I argue that Christian music uses strategies of popularization comparable to secular popular music. The difference to secular music comes from the fact that the Christian message is a central genre marker of Popular Christian Music, leading me to suggest that the popularity (in the sense of reaching a large audience apart from religious/evangelistic circles) essentially depends on the polysemic properties of the lyrics. |
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| ISSN: | 2617-3697 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal for religion, film and media
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.25364/05.6:2020.2.4 |