“Oh, You Didn't Think Just the Devil Writes Songs, Do Ya?” Music in American Evangelical Culture Today

Abstract

This article explores the evangelical soundscape that has expanded beyond traditional church venues and camp meetings to penetrate mainstream popular culture. The author examines the role music plays within the evangelical subculture, focusing on the recruitment and retention of members. She argues that music is key in identity articulations among conservative evangelicals, who struggle to construct a distinctive religious identity in the face of religious-cultural pluralism and secularism.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Gary Burns and the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.

Notes

[1] The distinction is often made between worship and evangelism by conservative evangelicals, but this is actually difficult to sustain in a revival setting. Organizers and participants consider some activities such as singing as both worshipful (directed to God) and evangelical (aimed at the unchurched in their midst).

[2] It is problematic to draw a strictly linear, causal link between revivalism and worship because some churches selectively appropriated techniques borrowed from professional revivalism and vice versa.

[3] Hymnals interfere with free movement during worship and are seen by many as archaic.

[4] Evangelicals emphasize evangelism and a personal relationship with Jesus. They adopt various degrees of biblical literalism and underline the inerrancy of Scripture. Fundamentalists are the more militant stream within American evangelicalism. Another stream, Pentecostal-charismatics, share certain core beliefs as evangelicals such as the need for a born-again experience and the inerrancy of the Bible, but they emphasize spiritual gifts (e.g. speaking in tongues, healing, prophecy, etc.).

[5] On the other hand, Craig Mosher argues that rock and roll music was strongly influenced by Pentecostal music and worship style—both directly and indirectly. For a compelling discussion, see Mosher (95–112).

[6] Collective liminality concerns “an intense community spirit, a feeling of great social solidarity, equality, and togetherness. People experiencing liminality together form a community of equals…. Religious groups often use liminal characteristics to set themselves off from others…. Liminal features may also signal the sacredness of persons, settings, and events by setting them off as extraordinary—outside normal social space and regular time” (Kottak 389).

[7] Of course, music can also have the opposite, deleterious effect, producing physical discomfort—even pain—as I once learned at my peril. During a neo-Pentecostal revival service in London, England—which I attended as a participant observer—the headline performer's amplified trumpet playing was so loud (due to a badly set up PA sound system) that his music actually drove people out of the auditorium.

[8] Apparently classical and traditional church music remains the preserve of the highly educated and those aged 55 and older.

[9] Originating from the Annales School tradition in history, experience veçue refers to the layer of historical-societal reality that includes cultural-mental aspects.