Who decides what worship songs we sing in church? It turns out, worship music is a massive industry, and the way songs make it from a Nashville songwriting room to a Sunday morning service might surprise you.
In this episode, Marc Jolicoeur joins The Biblical Mind Podcast to break down the business of contemporary worship music (CWM). He explains how four major megachurches dominate the industry, why most modern worship songs are written by teams of professionals rather than individual artists, and how CCLI licensing and copyright structures shape what gets sung in churches.
But is this market-driven approach shaping worship in unhealthy ways? Dru and Marc discuss whether the emotional tone of worship music has shifted, why lament and imprecatory psalms are almost absent from today’s songs, and whether churches should return to singing scripture itself.
Is the worship music we sing today more about marketing than theology? And what would happen if the Psalms were reintroduced into Sunday services?
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Chapters:
00:00 Introduction 00:27 The Landscape of Worship Music 04:25 The Role of Songwriters and Publishing 10:35 Market Penetration of Worship Songs 16:33 The Influence of Megachurches on Worship Music 21:11 The Evolution of Christian Music 25:48 Worship Music vs. Performance Music 28:38 The Role of Ritual in Worship 31:28 Psalms and Their Relevance in Modern Worship 35:29 Lament in Worship Music 45:16 The Challenge of Lament in Worship 49:55 Navigating Worship Leadership and Emotional Contexts 54:44 Imprecatory Psalms and Modern Worship 01:00:47 The Role of Specificity in Worship Lyrics
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