Worship Music

Really want to keep religion out of this thread, but I suppose that could be impossible for some...

I left the church a long time ago for many convictions but still kept the faith. Just recently I started playing guitar on a worship team as an outlet for my music/creativity. While it's a good group due to their allowance of improvisation, there's one big problem: the music makes my soul hurt. In a bad way.

Now I know there's the central argument that Worship is A State of Mind thus Keep it Simple Stupid but it seems that this "genre" has gotten even more lazy, lyrically and musically. This church thrives on newer playlists, and the lack of originality is astounding. Every other song follows that familiar pop-driven I-V-vi-IV or worse i-VI-III-VII movement. Attached to these movements are derivative melodies that follow the same formulaic sentiment--quiet verse, loud chorus, quiet verse, loud chorus, quiet bridge building to an explosive crescendo with a lyrical vamp. The result is a tear in every eye (keep in mind this is a moderately evangelistic church, not necessarily Pentecostal with the wild dancing and such).

Today was the worst--we had a new HIT song which plagiarized Katy Perry's Teenage Dream, rave synths and all. This kind of music is highly embraced by church-goers and it doesn't take much to trip their wires into an emotional frenzy. Once upon a time, at least, worship music resembled a much more subtle and nuanced nature, with balanced, guitar-driven ballads--still syrupy, but at least controlled to some degree. What's really grinding my gears is the horrible, ugly lyrical lethargy going on in these songs. Every line is an arbitrary statement about the nature of God, devoid of intellectual provocation and poetic effort. You could virtually switch around every line and get the same song. Nothing is really thematic in scope, just a big jumble of love song madness. Pebo Bryson had more quality in his songs.

Lastly, people treat these "artists" as cutting edge. WTF, I say. They're all doing the same thing and writing the same songs which, in my opinion, God probably finds most disgraceful. Everything is pedestrian, safe, conventional, formulaic, mindless, contemporary hogwash treated as intuitive and transcendent.

The more I think about it, yeah it does seem like I'm venting about pop music, but I'd much rather listen to my local Top 40 radio station. At least there's some form of sincerity there.

Thoughts?

Ha, I hear ya'. There's a few that seem sincere and mostly it's a money making enterprise.

Dark Horseman wrote:

Ha, I hear ya'. There's a few that seem sincere and mostly it's a money making enterprise.

Lots of christians (especially your side of the pond) Having been raised Catholic I like my God music dour and utterly joyless.

Boris2008 wrote:

Dark Horseman wrote:

Ha, I hear ya'. There's a few that seem sincere and mostly it's a money making enterprise.

Lots of christians (especially your side of the pond) Having been raised Catholic I like my God music dour and utterly joyless.

Me too; whenever I lead I choose hymns and transpose them to minor keys and make them all haunting and shit. In all seriousness it brings about a lot more reflection than happy-happy-dance-and-love-out-loud.

Going off that, I've always wondered why worship music can't be abstract, esoteric, and inaccessible. Write a song like it came from Blonde on Blonde and put it to the music of Nick Cave and the modern church will help you out the door. I'd rather sing or hear a song that makes me think. After all, "love the lord god with all your mind."

I go to a reformed church, we don't do the chorus, Jesus is my boyfriend thing.

I've been playing in my church's worship band for a while, and it soon became well established that I won't have heard any new song that we introduce, simply because that's not the sort of music I listen to.  But it's never been an issue because the songs are easy to pick up as they're pretty much mainstream radio-friendly rock.

I don't follow the Christian music scene at all, but it seems to me that the big stars these days are the "worship leaders".  People like Matt Redman, David Crowder who sell loads of albums, play sold out shows and have a decent sideline in the royalties from churches playing their songs.

So the songs aren't going to be particular adventurous musically as everyone's going to gravitate towards things that are easy to learn and remember.  And instead of writing songs that are personal or some form of social commentary or use creative metaphors and imagery, Christian songwriters are using lyrics that work in a corporate worship setting that can end up being rather generic.

And here are a couple of videos which seem appropriate.

Ahahahahahahaha.

It's sad when an artist or band has a hit with a "worship" song and we get about 4 or 5 other "arrangements" of said song by others. Sad why ? Cause we serve the Lord of Creation and all we get is a bunch of copy cat crap.

I personally dig the first Sonic Flood album, Rebecca St. James "Worship God", Petra Praise, Third Day "Offerings" and Mitchey's "All Hail The Power".

I stepped down from the worship band where I currently fellowship cause every song the worship leader plays is the same boom chucka boom beat (kick snare 4/4)  and the playlist to the regional Christian music radio station.  Songs played exactly like on the radio  and they have a set list planned out...3 or 4 songs then a quick prayer and on with the message.  God forbid the Holy Spirit moving on the congregation and we end up worshipping for a few hours. Let's put God in a box and praise Him on our terms.

I like Third Day, Petra and of the more modern stuff I like Rend Collective. I absolutely think most of the songs on the radio sound the same - but you can say that about the bubble gum pop station too.

I am fortunate enough to play in a church with a bunch of talented musicians who like to mess with the music and rearrange songs to be more customized to our people.....extended instrumental sections, harmony guitar solos, our own original songs, rearranged hymns, all kinds of cool fun-to-play stuff.
Yeah, we do a few of the boring mainstream things as well, but it's way better than it could be.

bassman wrote:

I am fortunate enough to play in a church with a bunch of talented musicians who like to mess with the music and rearrange songs to be more customized to our people.....extended instrumental sections, harmony guitar solos, our own original songs, rearranged hymns, all kinds of cool fun-to-play stuff.
Yeah, we do a few of the boring mainstream things as well, but it's way better than it could be.

That is what I miss about where I fellowshipped in California. Also miss doing the prisons and homeless missions too.

I've never done a prison ministry.....lots of concerts in the park kind of stuff, but never actually inside a correctional facility.

Bassman, I am now dying to visit your church lol.

You're welcome any time....give me a week's notice and I'll make sure the setlist will melt your face.