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DOI: 10.25364/05.6:2020.2.4 What Makes Popular Christian Music “Popular”? |
41www.jrfm.eu
2020, 6/2, 41–57
Reinhard Kopanski
What Makes Popular Christian Music
“Popular”?
A Comparison of Current US-American and German
Christian Music Using the Examples of Lauren Daigle
and Koenige & Priester
Abstract
By applying different (competing) understandings of the term “popular”, this article
showcases the criteria by which Popular Christian Music (labelled Contemporary
Christian Music by the US music industry) can be described as “popular”. It compares
Anglo-American and German-language Christian songs by means of close readings of
the German band Koenige & Priester (Kings & Priests) and US singer Lauren Daigle. It
argues that Christian music uses strategies of popularization comparable to secular
popular music. Unlike secular music, however, for Popular Christian Music the Chris-
tian message is a central genre marker, which leads me to suggest that its popularity
(in the sense of reaching a large audience beyond religious/evangelical circles) essen-
tially depends on the polysemic properties of its lyrics.
Keywords
Contemporary Christian Music (CCM), Germany, Koenige & Priester (band), Lauren Daigle
(singer), Lyrics, Music, Popular Christian Music (PCM), Religion, United States of America
Biography
Reinhard Kopanski is a research associate at the University of Siegen at the Professo-
rial Chair of Popular Music and Gender Studies. His research interests include music
and politics, music and technology, and music and religion. He recently completed
his Ph.D. in musicology; his thesis will be published in 2021 as Bezugnahmen auf den
Nationalsozialismus in der populären Musik. Lesarten zu Laibach, Death In June, Feindflug,
Rammstein und Marduk. He has contributed articles in peer-reviewed journals such
as Metal Music Studies and Samples, as well as for the online version of the German
academic music encyclopaedia Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart (MGG). His pro-
fessional experience includes pedagogical work as a lecturer in Bonn and Cologne and
freelance work in the field of audio production.
JRFM
Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 06/02
- Title
- JRFM
- Subtitle
- Journal Religion Film Media
- Volume
- 06/02
- Authors
- Christian Wessely
- Daria Pezzoli-Olgiati
- Editor
- Uni-Graz
- Publisher
- SchĂĽren Verlag GmbH
- Location
- Graz
- Date
- 2020
- Language
- English
- License
- CC BY-NC 4.0
- Size
- 14.8 x 21.0 cm
- Pages
- 128
- Categories
- Zeitschriften JRFM