The Religious Dimensions of Popular Music

According to Till (2010), religious songs were traditionally music that referenced religion and were performed within a religious setting. Nowadays, however, it seems that popular music has become the basis of new religious movements. Thus, instead of songs being made for religions, religions are being made out of song genres. This is due to traditional world religions becoming outdated in their approaches to modern day society issues such as sexuality, including contraception and same sex relationships. Youth go to other forms of media, such as music, to address such issues. Therefore, popular cultural values are changing from the original, traditional and religious ones. As traditional religions become irrelevant to a youthful society, new religious movements are created for young people to learn and develop a culture of their own to address contemporary issues (Till, 2010). Take for instance new religious movements that can be defined as pop cults. 

Till (2010) defines pop cults as "popular music based new religious movements" which offer structures of society and codes of behaviour applicable to youth's own preferences. They are the result of a changing culture. Their texts are living, contemporary traditions that reflect the culture that they are set in, rather than written texts which cannot be changed or adapted as in most traditional religions. They are based more upon the behaviours rather than the beliefs - allowing transcendental experiences of the divine through music mediated and controlled by others, such as a DJ. For example, the music genre recognised as "hip hop" is a pop cult.

It is quite intriguing to think of hip hop, or any music genre for that matter, as being a religious movement. According to Clifford Geertz (1912), religion is "religious belief in the midst of ritual, where it engulfs the total person, transporting him into another mode of existence and religious belief' (p.23). Therefore, hip hop is indeed defined as a religious movement, as the power of dance creates a deeper experience of the rap music and leads an adherent into an intensified spiritual, bodily state (Sylvan, 2002).  This transcendent principle is also evident through DJ mixing and rapping, where artists reach an experiential state when rhyming/mixing. They develop a connection with the spiritual power of the words coming through.

Sylvan (2002) raises some interesting ideologies when considering the lives of hip hop “followers.” It is incredibly amazing to consider this type of music to be an outlet, a place for adherents to lose themselves to connect with God. In the midst of poverty, violence, drugs and poor life styles, the rap music and break dancing calms and redirects one’s energy (Sylvan, 2002). One reaches a deeper spiritual aspect where the words they rap come from within the heart and speak for the larger community. It is a self-generated ritual which taps into the deeper parts of an individual to connect with God and the spiritual world (Sylvan, 2002). Here, the spoken word is sacred, supernatural and potent. Additionally, the sense of unity of the dance floor also emphasises a connection to the spiritual world of the new religious movement. Therefore, hip hop provides a sense of community and religious experience in the midst of the music ritual (Sylvan, 2002).

Hip hop, and other music related pop religions, are sources of spiritual awakening in young people’s lives who can no longer connect with outdated, traditional religions. It creates a community that could be responsible for a change in the future world.

References:

Geertz, C (1912). ‘Religion as a Cultural System,’ Part 1 Classical Sociological Definitions of Religion, 16-23. Retrieved from http://ambounds.org/Class/ReligionReading1.pdf

Sylvan R. 2002. Traces of the Spirit: The Religious Dimensions of Popular Music. New York and London: New York University Press. Ch. 6, Message: Rap Music and Hip-Hop culture. 182-213. (RL)

Till, R. 2010. Pop Cult: Religion and Popular Music. London: Continuum International Publishing, Ch. 9, Do You Believe in Rock and Roll. Musical Cults of the Sacred Popular. 168-192. Ebook.

Image Source:

My own drawing of a hip hop dancer.