Music and Religion

I grew up going to church, and music has always played a prominent role in my religious experience. What I find really interesting about religious music is that you can use it to worship God by listening to or by performing it. My church has a band and orchestra that help with worship, and I help out when I’m in town. Playing in church is always a cool experience because not only can I worship God through my talents, I can help others worship as well, which is the purpose of music at my church. Music is also used to teach children about religion, such as songs to help them learn the books of the Bible, or memorize verses. I also remember learning hymns for my Sunday school class so that I could earn a hymnal. (But looking back, I am glad that I chose to do that because I am familiar with most well known hymns, which has proven useful on multiple occasions, such as when I visit my grandparents’ extremely traditional Baptist church.)

My church embraces a mostly contemporary style when it comes to music and worship, but I have also been exposed to church settings where the worship is comprised of hymns accompanied by a church organist. I am made painfully aware of the differences in worship styles whenever my grandparents visit and attend our church and inevitably remark about how the preaching is great, but the music is too rowdy. I don’t really prefer one style over another, although I was raised with contemporary religious music, and wasn’t really told that there are rules and regulations concerning worship music. I think that this especially separates my generation from my grandparents’ generation in that I don’t expect a certain style of music, and they are used to always knowing what’s going on and what’s being sung, and there is certainly no place for drums or electric guitars.

I think that religion definitely has an impact on what music is found aesthetically pleasing, but music can also influence religion, or at least religious music. My church is nondenominational, so I don’t think it really identifies with a particular hymnal or style of worship, other than just generally contemporary. While religious music has followed the popular aesthetic, the same cannot be said for secular music. Although most Americans say that they identify with Christianity, this is not reflected in the popular music of our culture. I’m certainly not trying to say that this is a bad thing, but rather I find it interesting that in this period in our country’s history, religious music is influenced by secular music, and secular music remains largely unchanged by religious music.

I’ve noticed that religious music has changed over the years, just like secular music, and that the traditional “old fashioned” hymns have even been given more attention lately. This is one of my favorite aspects of worship at my church. Some weeks there is a large rock band and drums, and others there is only a guitar, piano, and maybe one or two singers, but there is always a good mix of the old and new. While my church may not choose to perform hymns in their original setting, and usually uses contemporary arrangements, the old hymns and their influence on Christian music are definitely respected.