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What Makes Popular Christian Music âPopularâ? |
49www.jrfm.eu
2020, 6/2, 41â57
is streamed, as one glance at the booklet, and more specifically its credits,
quickly reveals the Christian content. Not only is God thanked first in the
credits, but Koenige & Priester refer to the credits as âDanksagungâ (thanks-
giving/acknowledgement),38 a recognizable part of Christian worship services.
For a further level of this analysis, we can turn to Koenige & Priesterâs offi-
cial video clip for the song. Since February 2017 the video clip has been viewed
about 225,000 times on YouTube, where it is referred to as âB. A. S. E. living room
sessionâ.39 Unlike the album version, here the song is played unplugged. The
term âliving room sessionâ can imply a certain spontaneity, as a private gather-
ing to play a little music together. This spontaneity is carefully, even profession-
ally, staged in the clip, with, for example, the room perfectly illuminated and
various cameras or at least camera perspectives. In addition, the sound is re-
markably precise and clear, which suggests it was not recorded when the play-
ers actually performed this video clip. It would be nearly impossible to achieve
the smooth sound heard in the video clip with three highly sensitive large di-
aphragm condenser microphones for the singers positioned in the immediate
vicinity of the drums. Ergo, this video clip features a level of production that
is in no way inferior to that of the secular music scene. Secular popular music
will often frame video clips (especially on YouTube) as an acoustic/basement/
studio session. Then again, the specific setting of Koenige & Priesterâs video
clip can link the band to evangelical communities, for whom non-hierarchical,
informal meetings, are part of their lived religion. In addition, the clipâs staging
has visible parallels to the âAcoustic Sessionsâ by Hillsong United â one of the
most successful evangelical worship bands in the world.40 Moreover, a number
of visual markers identify Koenige & Priester as Christian. In addition to the
cross clearly visible around Thomas Ennâs neck, all the singersâ facial expres-
sions are blissful and they make gestures of praise (fig. 1, 2).
What is âpopularâ then about Koenige & Priester? The production values of
the song âAlles ist möglichâ are highly professional, which is certainly related to
the band membersâ experience in secular entertainment for many years. The lyr-
ics of âAlles ist möglichâ contain direct yet subtle and non-intrusive allusions to
the Bible, whereas the music could have stemmed from a secular indie pop band.
The band uses forms of presentation that are common in secular popular music.
38 Heldenreise (Koenige & Priester, DE 2017, dieKoalition Label), liner notes.
39 Alles ist moÌglich (Koenige & Priester, DE 2017).
40 Oceans (Acoustic) â Hillsong United (Hillsong United, AU 2013); for further reading on
Hillsong United see Wagner 2020.
JRFM
Journal Religion Film Media, Band 06/02
- Titel
- JRFM
- Untertitel
- Journal Religion Film Media
- Band
- 06/02
- Autoren
- Christian Wessely
- Daria Pezzoli-Olgiati
- Herausgeber
- Uni-Graz
- Verlag
- SchĂŒren Verlag GmbH
- Ort
- Graz
- Datum
- 2020
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- CC BY-NC 4.0
- Abmessungen
- 14.8 x 21.0 cm
- Seiten
- 128
- Kategorien
- Zeitschriften JRFM