Overview

Popular music in the twenty-first century is increasingly divided into niche markets. How do fans, musicians, and music industry executives define their markets’ boundaries? What happens when musicians cross those boundaries? What can Christian music teach us about commercial popular music? In God Rock, Inc., Andrew Mall considers the aesthetic, commercial, ethical, and social boundaries of Christian popular music, from the late 1960s, when it emerged, through the 2010s. Drawing on ethnographic research, historical archives, interviews with music industry executives, and critical analyses of recordings, concerts, and music festival performances, Mall explores the tensions that have shaped this evolving market and frames broader questions about commerce, ethics, resistance, and crossover in music that defines itself as outside the mainstream.

Full Product Details

Author:   Andrew Mall
Publisher:   University of California Press
Imprint:   University of California Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.00cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.454kg
ISBN:  

9780520343429

ISBN 10:   0520343425
Pages:   322
Publication Date:   01 December 2020
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Out of stock  
The supplier is temporarily out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you on backorder and shipped when it becomes available.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Playlists Introduction: Popular Music, Markets, Margins, and the Curious Case of Christian Music PART ONE. CHRISTIAN MUSIC: AN INDUSTRY AND ITS HISTORY 1 Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music? The Christian Market's Origins 2 The Great Adventure: Commercial Success in the Christian Record Industry and the Price of Profit 3 A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing? Christian Ethics Encounter Rock 4 Find a Way : Amy Grant and the Christian Market's Mainstream PART TWO. NICHE MUSIC MARKETS: ETHICS, PROFITS, AND RISK 5 Music to Raise the Dead: Christian Music and the Ethics of Style 6 Lost in the Sound of Separation: Resistance at Christian Music Festivals 7 From Margins to Mainstreams and Back: Crossover Cases and Their Markets Conclusion: The Stability of Risk and the Risk of Stability Appendix 1. Discographies Appendix 2. Pop Singles with Christian References (1957-70) Appendix 3. Major Christian Record Labels and Subsidiaries Appendix 4. Successful 1990s-Era Pop Singers' Albums Notes Bibliography Index

Reviews

"""This landmark study of Christian music in the United States offers both resonances and challenges to those in the field of religious studies."" * Religion *"

In God Rock Inc., Mall successfully creates a broad framework for future music studies. . . . the main content and theory proposed in this book are significant contributions to popular and religious music studies. * Reading Religion *

Author Information

Andrew Mall is Assistant Professor of Music at Northeastern University and a coeditor of Studying Congregational Music: Key Issues, Methods, and Theoretical Perspectives.

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

No review item found!

Add your own review!

Countries Available

All regions