Double Authenticity: Celebrity, Consumption, And
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Double Authenticity: Celebrity, Consumption, and the Christian Worship Music Industry BY NATHAN MYRICK Introduction here, celebrities are people who inhabit places of substantial popular influence and communicative value;5 people who are n the years since the turn of the twenty-first century, a new widely known and valued, either for what they have done Iform of music ministry has developed. Often characterized (“achieved celebrity”) or for who they are (ascribed celebrity); by rock and pop musics and especially by concert style abstractly, it is the “accumulation of attention capital.”6 production utilizing recent technological innovations, the new Celebrity may be good or bad, but it is neither inherently; form has quickly grown to become one of the most popular and instead, it is a reality of life for twenty-first century Americans. rapidly expanding models of evangelical protestant worship in The Celebrity Model arises out of a convergence of the United States. Often historically associated with mega- contemporary worship music, technological developments 1 churches such as Willow Creek and Gateway Church, and such as IMAG, Ableton, Spotify, and YouTube, the success of 2 with charismatic and Pentecostal worship traditions, this sort the Christian music industry’s adoption of Modern Worship of music ministry has been adopted by evangelical churches due to what Monique Ingalls calls the “British Invasion” in of all sizes and geographic regions, and has even had some the late 1990s,7 and what Anna Nekola has identified as the 3 influence in mainline congregations. integration of consumerism with evangelical political and social In what follows, I examine and analyze the salient features ideals in twentieth and twenty-first century North America.8 of this new model of congregational song leadership. My This convergence is configured by what Lynn Schofield Clark examination begins with a historical study of the emergence calls “Religious Lifestyle Branding,” the process by which the of the new model, highlighting impulses from both ecclesial populace of a consumer culture self-identifies with religious and cultural institutions. I then examine the philosophical ideals through the possession and consumption of religious undercurrents of these impulses, indicating points of convergence artifacts.9 Possession and consumption become, for those who between various strands of rationale and value. Finally, I examine inhabit this lifestyle, the primary means of what Ingalls calls how the central criterion of “authenticity” impels both a style of “authentication,” or the process by which objects and persons production and an impulse to produce new artifacts on the part are evaluated for trustworthiness. of the churches who employ this model. I have chosen to call this the “Celebrity Model” of music ministry. The word “celebrity” often carries negative Democracy, Cultural Exegesis (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008), connotations, yet as Barry Taylor points out, celebrity is an 149–55. integral part of current American culture; a crucial means of 5Ibid. authenticating a person, event, or object.4 For my purposes 6Chris Rojek, “Celebrity,” in The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Consumption and Consumer Studies (John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 2015), https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118989463. 1Lester Ruth, “Worship in an Age of Reconstruction: Introduction,” wbeccs036,10.1002/9781118989463.wbeccs036. Liturgy 32, no. 1 (January 2, 2017): 1–2, https://doi.org/10.1080/04580 7Monique M. Ingalls, “Transnational Connections, Musical Meaning, 63X.2016.1229428; Lester Ruth, “The Eruption of Worship Wars: The and the 1990s ‘British Invasion’ of North American Evangelical Worship Coming of Conflict,” Liturgy 32, no. 1 (2017): 3–6, https://doi.org/10.1080/0 Music,” in Oxford Handbooks Online, ed. Jonathan Dueck and Suzel Ana 458063X.2016.1229431. Reily, vol. Oxford Handbook of Music and World Christianities, 2015, 2Swee Hong Lim and Lester Ruth, Lovin’ on Jesus: A Concise History of 425–45, http://www.academia.edu/download/44004642/Ingalls_2013_-__ Contemporary Worship (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2017). Transnational_Connections.pdf. 3Deborah R. Justice, “Sonic Change, Social Change, Sacred Change: 8Anna E. Nekola, “Negotiating the Tensions of U.S. Worship Music in Music and the Reconfiguration of American Christianity” (Indiana the Marketplace,” in Oxford Handbooks Online, ed. Jonathan Dueck and University, 2012), http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.baylor.edu/pqdtglobal/ Suzel Ana Reily, vol. Oxford Handbook of Music and World Christianities, docview/1037812173/abstract/E2CDA6C82DBB43D1PQ/1; Deborah R. 2015, 513–29. Justice, “The Curious Longevity of the Traditional–Contemporary Divide: 9Lynn Schofield Clark, “Identity, Belonging, and Religious Lifestyle Mainline Musical Choices in Post–Worship War America,” Liturgy 32, no. 1 Branding (Fashion Bibles, Bhangra Parties, and Muslim Pop),” in Religion, (January 2, 2017): 16–23, https://doi.org/10.1080/0458063X.2016.1229438. Media, and the Marketplace, ed. Lynn Schofield Clark (New Brunswick, NJ: 4Barry Taylor, Entertainment Theology: New-Edge Spirituality in a Digital Rutgers University Press, 2007), 1–33. Spring 2018 • Vol. 69, No. 2 THE HYMN • 21 The convergence of this triad of 1) media lifestyle successful that, as the revivals of the early twentieth century marketing of an ecclesial practice, 2) personal religious diminished in force and frequency following the second world identification in and through the possession of the objects war (Billy Graham notwithstanding), it was institutionalized this marketing strategy produced, and 3) the authenticating in many evangelical churches in the United States (what effect of “celebrity” on religious music consumerism resulted James F. White called the “Frontier Tradition”13). This process in a unique, but not unprecedented, model of music ministry. was not unidirectional; it should be noted that Alexander, Previously unnamed, I hope that this essay will offer a suitable Rodeheaver, Bliss, and Sankey would not be nearly as well handle by which the practice can continue to be discussed. known if not for their partnerships with Torrey, Chapman, From the outset, my efforts are directed towards the goal of Sunday and Moody.14 Nevertheless, the perceived value of greater understanding and care in practice, and not towards a having a recognizable persona involved in any leadership critique of some perceived malfeasance in Christianity. I hope capacity at a church was undeniable, and explicitly so the reader will see this concern throughout. regarding music. Historical Development of the Model TECHNOLOGICAL RELIANCE REVIVALIST ANTECEDENTS n important component of the Celebrity Model is A modern technology. The communicative power and he Celebrity Model of music ministry as I am describing popularity of internet-based social media and image/video T it here is not without precedent, although its trajectory sharing sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Livestream, must be understood as one of convergence, and not linear and YouTube—together with audio streaming sites such 10 cause and effect (as will be made clear below). The model has as Spotify, Pandora, Amazon Music, iTunes Radio, Band some roots in the Sunday School movement of the nineteenth Camp, and a host of others—facilitated an explosion of far- and twentieth centuries, but more closely reflects the values reaching dissemination for both famous worship leaders and of the revivalist models that characterized the evangelical the artifacts they produced/were associated with. This nearly revivals of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The comprehensive dissemination was in large part facilitated by revival service, while originally a multi-day affair, developed the introduction of IMAG (Image MAGnification) in the into a rather standardized format involving a period of singing late 1990s in evangelical churches in North America.15 Now that culminated in the delivery of the gospel message. This the congregation and those watching at home (via television, template has proven sufficiently robust to be applied broadly YouTube, or Livestream) could see the worship leader; he or in church services today, and it is used across denominational she was no longer just a name but was also a recognizable face 11 12 lines, from “Seeker Services” to “Sandy Creek Tradition” and personality. Baptist churches. Recognition of music’s power in this regard is not unique to nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Reformers such Martin Luther and John Calvin similarly CONTEMPORARY WORSHIP MUSIC AND THE recognized its power, although they had different conclusions CHRISTIAN MUSIC INDUSTRY as to what role music should play in worship. Similarly, the eginning in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the practice of employing popular musicians to enhance the B development of popular forms of musical worship has music of ecclesial worship is not unique to the nineteenth had a profound impact on congregational singing in North and twentieth century North American context. America. While the term Praise and Worship has been used The appeal of music in ushering in the faithful and in Latter Rain Pentecostal circles since at least the 1950s curious to the revivals of the nineteenth and twentieth (and likely earlier),16 the musical form most often historically centuries is undeniable; would the force of Torrey, Chapman, associated with it emerged in Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, Sunday, and Moody’s sermons have been