Charlie Harding

It's still huge.

I mean, I think about Justin Bieber came out with his album Swag this year.

He's got a song.

featuring the artist and producer Dijon called Devotion.

And it has all of those big vocal ornamentations.

It has the gospel chorus, like the idea of the chorus, the moment we all sing together, spans from those traditions.

And so when Dijon and Justin are singing about their devotion, in which case it's, you know, sort of bleeding over into devotional love.

As much as it is maybe about devotion of a higher being, we get those same kinds of qualities, and you're going to hear the sounds of gospel in contemporary music everywhere.

The slow build, I think the urtext of the slow build, if not Diane Warren ballads, would be Fix You by Coldplay.

And it's one of the most influential songs actually in Christian worship music.

It's a song that begins with a quiet organ, so kind of hinting at the church, just Chris Martin singing in a very pensive, quiet, almost whisper vocal, singing about trying to overcome a difficult situation.

The production builds, you get these swelling strings, and by the time you get to the end of the song, things just completely explode.

except for the very final moment.

The idea is, yeah, it's just like an ever-building crescendo.

And I think that that song form mirrors the experience of a religious experience.

It's like, I'm going to get on my knees and pray and have a moment to myself and try to look towards the divine for answers.

And you can just picture being in a giant cathedral and all of a sudden the light changes, the light shines down through the stained glass and you're having this holy moment, something bigger than yourself.

And that's what that song form does.

Well, you know, I don't love mentioning him because he always wants so much attention, but Kanye has taken that religious turn in his music as well.

But what's interesting about Coldplay is that...