Fantastic article from Waleed Aly in “The Age” this week. Thought this quote deserved a mention, perhaps as an allegory for the institutional church:
“But religion struggled to be cool, much less inspiring in the popular space. Religious music persisted, but in subcultures. The American Christian country music industry is enormous, but not mainstream. Evangelical churches in particular have produced torrents of Christian music which, ironically, adopts almost every style of popular music. But it is simply incapable of capturing a popular audience because it is so unapologetically alienating to the unconverted. We are trained to think of religion and popular music as opposing universes. If popular music has a faith, it’s the satanism of heavy metal, we suppose.”
So I was struck by that, but there’s more in the article worth pulling out. The article goes on to talk about Nick Cave, Sinead O’Connor and U2 as artists that are striking at a chord that resonates with an “increasingly irreligious” generation.
“Are Cave and O’Connor today’s spiritual teachers, educating a secular generation? O’Connor would recoil at the suggestion. “I’m not calling for anything,” she says. “I just want to make music that I enjoy making.” But it is hard to believe the same could be said of U2, whose religious influences are only slightly less well known than their social activism. The liner notes on their 2000 album All That You Can’t Leave Behind openly call on fans to “remember (Burmese political prisoner) Aung San Suu Kyi” and “take action”. One track, Walk On, is dedicated to her. “
Make sure you have a read of the whole article: “Songs of Redemption - theage.com.au”
Is it the “take it or leave it” nature of this spirituality that appeals to the “now” generation, or is there something in the words and music being put out there by artists like Nick Cave (whose recent album “Dig!!! Lazarus, Dig!!!” is a ripper) that the church is missing out on? Your learned and wise thoughts are sought, but any comment will do 
3 Comments
Thanks for the post Geoff.
I suppose what keeps me wanting to purchase albums from ‘Secular’ musos is that I think that there is a bit more honesty, they have a better feeling and understanding of Spirituality in our Culture than the institutionalized church has!
Often I find that there are critiques in lyrics about the church that I find spot on. All three artists you mentioned are classic examples. The scary thing is that these guys know there bible. Even if they aren’t walking the way. Nick Cave and lyrics in songs ‘God is in the house’, ‘Where going to praise him till we forget what we are praising him for’ etc etc. You can’t help think that there may be a prophetic edge to it all.
good topic to explore.
I think these “secular artists” are providing something that the religious music is not.
Much of what we (or I come across) sing in church are statements or “declarations” about ourselves and God (with the current critique being we do more of the former than the latter.)
Yet in the music I listen to I find 3 elements in greater measure: artistry, imagination and storytelling. By artistry I mean the sense of poetry and painting pictures with words rather than statements. With imagination, lyrics that paint grand ideas and pictures yet are still grounded in life. And with storytelling, these artists tell stories that we can be a part of - great songs have lines that we resonate deeply with.
Now, these elements can be lacking in pop music as much as I have suggested its lack in religious music, but I find that church music is heading more towards the mass, pop music and hence we are more seeing (and maybe engaging more?) the spirituality in the secular scene.
In my personal opinion, music is just one way of telling stories and nothing more, in a musical point of view. I remember once when a popular NWOBHM group called Iron Maiden was suspected as devil worshippers with songs such as The Number of The Beast, Hallowed Be Thy Name & Children of the Damned. If that’s the case, why didn’t the critics condemned the makers of films such as The Exorcist, Saw franchise (1 to 4) or The Omen? The point is, those who are greatly affected by things such as these need to go to a brain surgeon. I’ve been listening to this kind of music and they didn’t affect me. As a matter of fact, it made me closer to God and today, I also appreciate gospel or religious songs. What’s more, I keep myself occupied for a lot of things like my home staging business and I thank God every start and end of the day.