Living & Singing It Out: An Investigation of Contemporary Christian Music
Faculty Sponsor(s)
Brenda DeVore Marshall
Location
Jereld R. Nicholson Library
Subject Area
Communication Arts/Rhetoric
Description
An analysis of the messages of three contemporary Christian music songs popular in the fall of 2014 was conducted using a method that integrated cluster and ideological rhetorical criticism. Working backwards from the songs to reconstruct the belief system that they express uncovered a creed that bears further exploration in both rhetorical and theological fields. This study revealed the prevalence of “Christian-ese” ideographs—words imbued with special religious meaning—in these top songs. Such terms effectively limit the audience to those within the evangelical Christian co-culture who already understand such references. Awareness of this reality is critical, both to groups making Christian music and to the individual consumers who listen to it.
The paper upon which this poster was based was written for the Senior Seminar course in Communication Arts. The paper was competitively selected for presentation at the Northwest Communication Association Conference in April 2015, where the author received the award for the Top Undergraduate Paper.
Recommended Citation
Chapman, Lexy, "Living & Singing It Out: An Investigation of Contemporary Christian Music" (2015). Linfield University Student Symposium: A Celebration of Scholarship and Creative Achievement. Event. Submission 49.
https://digitalcommons.linfield.edu/symposium/2015/all/49
Living & Singing It Out: An Investigation of Contemporary Christian Music
Jereld R. Nicholson Library
An analysis of the messages of three contemporary Christian music songs popular in the fall of 2014 was conducted using a method that integrated cluster and ideological rhetorical criticism. Working backwards from the songs to reconstruct the belief system that they express uncovered a creed that bears further exploration in both rhetorical and theological fields. This study revealed the prevalence of “Christian-ese” ideographs—words imbued with special religious meaning—in these top songs. Such terms effectively limit the audience to those within the evangelical Christian co-culture who already understand such references. Awareness of this reality is critical, both to groups making Christian music and to the individual consumers who listen to it.
The paper upon which this poster was based was written for the Senior Seminar course in Communication Arts. The paper was competitively selected for presentation at the Northwest Communication Association Conference in April 2015, where the author received the award for the Top Undergraduate Paper.
