A Cultural Studies Analysis of the Christian Women Vocalists Movement from the 1980'S to 2000: Influences, Stars and Lyrical Meaning Making
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California State University, San Bernardino CSUSB ScholarWorks Theses Digitization Project John M. Pfau Library 2007 A cultural studies analysis of the Christian women vocalists movement from the 1980's to 2000: Influences, stars and lyrical meaning making Mary Elizabeth Akers Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project Part of the Critical and Cultural Studies Commons, and the Music Commons Recommended Citation Akers, Mary Elizabeth, "A cultural studies analysis of the Christian women vocalists movement from the 1980's to 2000: Influences, stars and lyrical meaning making" (2007). Theses Digitization Project. 3266. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/3266 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the John M. Pfau Library at CSUSB ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses Digitization Project by an authorized administrator of CSUSB ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A CULTURAL STUDIES ANALYSIS OF THE CHRISTIAN WOMEN VOCALISTS MOVEMENT FROM THE 1980S TO 2000: INFLUENCES, STARS AND LYRICAL MEANING MAKING A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of California State University, San Bernardino In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in Communication Studies by Mary Elizabeth Akers December 2007 A CULTURAL STUDIES ANALYSIS OF THE CHRISTIAN WOMEN VOCALISTS MOVEMENT FROM THE 1980S TO 2000: INFLUENCES, STARS AND LYRICAL MEANING MAKING A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of California State University, San Bernardino by Mary Elizabeth Akers December 2007 /f-2>7-E>7 Db. Robin Larsen Communication Date Studies Dr. James Radomski Dr. Rueyliri , Communication Studies © 2007 Mary Elizabeth Akers • ABSTRACT This study examines popular female Christian vocalists of the 1970s and 1980s, their images and their contemporary Christian music (CCM) lyrics. An image analysis, the extraction of meaningful information from images is applied here to the seven most popular CCM female vocalists of the seventies and eighties. These women of the 1970s were Marsha Carter Stevens, Annie Herring, Nancy Heningbaum, and Evie Tornquist. The women of the 1980s were Sandi Patty, Twila Paris and Amy Grant. A textual analysis, a standard method in the social sciences that is used for studying large contents of communication is applied here to fifty CCM songs. Twenty five songs from each decade is then studied so to identify what changes in the lyric’’ s degree of spirituality occurred that eventually helped North American women's CCM of the 1980s to its mainstream success. The results of this textual analysis reveal that lyrics did change its degree of spirituality in the 1980s. This was done through a greater variety of topics and through using proper names of God and the holy trinity, whereas in the 1970s pronouns and metaphors were more commonly used. The results of the image analysis show that specific female CCM vocalists had more followers and more success. The implications of this iii study illustrates the importance of image and lyrics and how certain female CCM vocalists had greater influences, impact and had the ability to make changes within their female audiences towards Christianity. iv DEDICATION To my parents, Sherman and Cathleen Wall. Their 38 years of hard work and dedication at Hesperia Community Church has blessed my life and numerous others. To my good friend Jan Johnson who has endlessly blessed my life. To Amy Grant who took the road less traveled. Thank you Amy. To all the CCM female vocalists of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, thank you for your valuable contributions. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT.............................................. iii LIST OF TABLES....................................... ix CHAPTER ONE: CONTEMPORARY CHRISTIAN MUSIC AND ITS KEY FEMALE VOCALISTS OF THE 1970S AND 1980S Introduction .................................... 1 Purpose Statement ............................... 5 Literature Review ............................... 10 Women in Rock and Popular Music............ 16 Leading Contemporary Christian Music Female Vocalists' Image .................... 24 Contemporary Rock Music and its Combination with Spiritual Lyrics .......... 28 Rock Music and How Contemporary Christian Music Female Vocalists Combined it with Spiritual Lyrics .......... 29 Commodification of Popular Culture and Cultural Consumption ....................... 36 Joint Music Ventures/ Joint Distribution ............................... 39 Conclusion................................. 41 CHAPTER TWO: THE ROOTS OF CONTEMPORARY CHRISTIAN MUSIC AND ITS POPULAR BEGINNINGS Introduction .................................... 44 Post World War II Era........................... 45 African-American and Other Historical Attempts of Modernizing Spiritual Music ......... 49 Influential Vocalists and Figures of Rock and Roll ............................................. 53 v Youth's Employment of Rock and Roll during Hardships....................................... 54 Beginnings of the Jesus People Movement ......... 58 Death of God Theology........................... 62 Leading and Supportive Figures of the Jesus People Movement................................ 64 Leading Figures that Supported the Early Jesus Music..................................... 73 Contemporary Christian. Music Rock Stars Supporters and Imitators ......................... 7 6 Explo '72....................................... 79 CHAPTER THREE: CONTEMPORARY CHRISTIAN MUSIC MAIN ATTRACTION OF THE 1970S; LIVE EXPERIENCES AND CONTEMPORARY CHRISTIAN MUSIC RECORDINGS OF THE 198OS GOING MAINSTREAM Introduction .................................... 82 Jesus Festivals of the Seventies................ 86 Faith Festivals............................ 87 Love Song Festivals........................ 88 Explo '72.................................. 89 Jesus '73.................................. 90 Praise '74................................. 90 First Annual Christian Artist' Seminar ..... 91 Jesus Music's Transformation .................... 92 Christian Radio Stations ........................ 94 KYMS-FM.................................... 95 KBHL-FM.................................... 95 vi KFMK....................................... 96 KBRT-AM..................... 97 The Fellowship of Contemporary Christian Ministries...................................... 98 Christian Magazines ............................. 99 Contemporary Christian MusicLabels ............. 101 Word Records................................ 101 Benson................... ................ 103 Star Song................................... 104 1978 and the Tremendous Improvements of Jesus Music Recordings................................. 104 1979 and the Record IndustryDepression ........... 106 Born Again Movement and Its Affect on Female Musicians from 1975 to the 1980s................. 108 Successful Joint Corporations of the 1980s and 1990s........................................ 110 CHAPTER FOUR: METHODOLOGY FOR IMAGE AND LYRIC ANALYSIS Introduction .............. 117 Step One: Selecting Key Female Vocalists of the 1970s........................................ 118 Step Two: Selecting Key Female Vocalists of the 1980s........................................ 118 Step Three: Analyzing the 1970s and 1980s Female Vocalists' Image ......................... 119 Marsha Carter Stevens ...................... 120 Nancy Heningbaum- Honeytree ................ 121 Annie Herring............................... 122 vii Evie Tornquist.............................. 122 Sandi Patty................................. 123 Amy Grant................................... 124 Twila Paris................................. 126 Image Analysis of all Seven Contemporary Christian Music Female Vocalists ........... 128 Step Four: Lyric Analysis ....................... 128 Findings about Images and Lyrics ................ 133 Lyrics of the Seventies..................... 135 Marsha Carter and Children of the Day ...... 138 Nancy Heningbaum-Honeytree ................. 139 Annie Herring and 2nd Chapter of Acts......... 141 Evie Tornquist............................. 142 Images of the Seventies.......................... 144 Lyrics of the Eighties........................... 147 Images of the Eighties........................... 158 CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION Findings and Implications ....................... 162 Future Research ................................. 185 APPENDIX: LYRICS OF THE 1970S AND 1980s................ 187 REFERENCES ........................................... .213 viii LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Song Styles of the 1970s.................... 137 Table 2. Song Styles of the 1980s.................... 148 ix CHAPTER ONE CONTEMPORARY CHRISTIAN MUSIC AND ITS KEY FEMALE VOCALISTS OF THE 1970S AND 1980S Introduction In the late 1960s, a spiritual movement better known as the Jesus people movement occurred that permanently changed popular Christian music and also paved the way for key female Christian vocalists to become mainstream, influencing large young female audiences from the 1980s to now to transform their Christianity. This movement, known as the "Jesus Movement" or the "Jesus People Movement," addressed and influenced the troubled youths of the San Francisco Haight-Ashbury district (Thompson, 2000, p. 28). From this movement emerged a new style of Christian music, which the pioneers of this sound used as a witnessing tool to reach these troubled youths. Consequently, this new music style simply became known as "Jesus music" (p. 28). Jesus