Categorizing music (2)

Following yesterday’s initiatory look at music categories, here are some ways of categorizing church songs:

1. Whether it’s a book or non-book song.  (“Hymnal” is sort of a misnomer, so I’ll just say “book.”)  We leaders tend to carry around an unspoken list of how many of our songs on a given Sunday were “hymns” (meaning “found in the book”), and how many were “contemporary” or “worship songs” (ignoring the fact that two of the book songs were worship songs, too!).   Almost subconsciously, as we plan and communicate plans and carry out plans, we are too conscious of how many songs are in the “old” and “newer” categories.  Of course, as “contemporary” songs come to be included in revisions of song books, this whole analysis becomes more complicated.
2. Musical style considerations such as harmonic rhythm and presence or absence of a chorus/refrain.  These days, there seems to be less interest in a strict musical classification or even in anything musical whatsoever (summer singing schools and singing Sunday nights are just about extinct).  Folks often bend over backwards to avoid any appearance of giving too much emphasis to music or things musical, despite the pervasiveness of music — and the continued, albeit different, musical literacy in our culture.
3. A third way of categorizing is in terms of textual content.  The content of a song is more important than its musical style, or whether the song is found in a book or not.  Lyrical/textual content merits primary consideration.

For what it’s worth, below, I offer an attempt at categorization of my church’s 2011 “top 25″ based on content.  I feel that someone needs to challenge the status quo that worries too much about whether a song is in a song book or not.

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Hymns/Direct Worship

Ancient of Days
As The Deer (Nystrom)
Here I Am To Worship
More Precious Than Silver
My Jesus, I Love Thee
On Bended Knee
Step By Step

Praise, Thanks, and Indirect Worship/Call To Worship
A Mighty Fortress
Blessed Be the Lord God Almighty
Come Let Us Worship and Bow Down
Give Thanks
How Great Is Our God
I Will Call Upon the Lord
The Steadfast Love of the Lord
We Will Glorify

Prayer
Create in Me a Clean Heart
Light the Fire
Lord, Reign in Me
Unto Thee, O Lord

Edification/Teaching
The Battle Belongs to the Lord (also, contains elements of praise)
The Greatest Command

Difficult to categorize (“crossover” or partially unknown to me)
God Himself Is With Us
He Still Came
Lamb of God
Yes, Lord, Yes

Categorizing music (1)

Not being all that hip to popular music (90% of it bores me, turns me off, or disgusts me), I have often been enlightened by pop¹ enthusiasts’ categorizations of music.

“They’re my favorite band.  They’re sort of post-punk, psychedelic folk, with elements of surf pop and electro-funk.

“Yeah, our influences were Led Zeppelin and Journey and Bob Marley, and our sound is totally unique.  We end up with sort of an alternative-zydeco, bluesy-acid, bubblegum blend of folk and country.”

New pop music categories seem to emerge monthly.  I think new categories are birthed for marketing’s sake, and in order to give new garage bands a raison d’etre.  Personally, I have a short handle on “southern rock” and “progressive rock” and “disco,” but I seriously question who determines what is “alternative” and what alternative subcategories exist.  I really have no interest in distinguishing among the dozens of recognized varieties of hip-hop and rap, between “doom metal” and “thrash metal,” or between “power pop” and “pop rock.”  And who knew there could even be a category called “acid blues”?  :-)

I’ve known of two churches, I think, that take time — or, more accurately, that have one person who takes the time on behalf of the church — to keep an active database of songs sung in gatherings.  Categorizings result — based on, for example, 1) who leads the song, 2) which month/week it is used, 3) whether it is “new” or not, and 4) what type of song it is.  Such databases, in my view, are mildly interesting, but they take more time and effort than they’re worth, and I’ve never been quite sure that their purposes and effects warrant the time taken.  My dad used to keep informal records of different song leaders’ choices, but I don’t believe he ever shared his lists with anyone, and I think he was merely documenting, for his own planning purposes, whether certain favorites were being sung too frequently.

An interesting study would be to match song content with Bible texts and sermon topics and special events that played key roles in a given church’s assemblies, during a given time period.  Was there conceptual tie-in?  For instance, in our church, a familiar song that has to do with Christian unity made the top-25 list in 2010 but not in 2011.  I wonder whether its falling out of favor might have paralleled a trend of less “one-another” focus.

Tomorrow, I’ll share some ways of categorizing church songs.

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¹ Here, I use “pop” as an umbrella term to refer, essentially, to all the music played on non-art-music radio stations.