Chapter 1: What is manifestation and why is it popular?
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A few years ago, songs that were topping the Billboard Hot 100 might have sounded like this. Or this. But lately, the songs that are getting the most replays are sounding more like this. And a little further down on the charts, like this. Are you picking up what I'm putting down? The Hot 100 has been getting a heavy dose of piety and prayer lately.
It's an unusual thing for multiple Christian artists to be on the Billboard Hot 100 at the same time, and that's happened right now. That's Kelsey Kramer-McGinnis. I am a reporter for Christianity Today, covering music and congregational worship practices. and I'm an adjunct professor at Grandview University.
She even has a name for this unusual amount of faith-flavored music on the charts.
Barstool conversion rock. It's sort of this, like, interesting web of things between masculinity, kind of conservative politics, country.
It's the type of music two guys can share a beer over and reflect on the simple things in life, like the goodness of God.
I mean, you even have, you know, Jelly Roll, Shaboosie, Alex Warren, a whole collection of, I would add, primarily male artists making this kind of faith-flavored music and really making breakthroughs with it.
And it's not just the Hot 100. Over the past years, Spotify streams of Christian contemporary music have grown 60%. The market and appetite for Christian music seems to be swelling.
There are some Christians who look at that and say, revival is coming. There's a sign of something that's happening. I'm less convinced of that, but I do think It's an interesting question to ask. Why might the messages in this music be resonating with people, especially young people at this moment in time?
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Chapter 2: How does the internet influence our dreams and desires?
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Okay, so I need a little bit of context. So to start us off, what exactly is Christian contemporary music or CCM?
Gosh, that's such a good question. So I tend to talk about it like an industry. So CCM is not a genre so much as it is like a media ecosystem that really became popular in the 1980s and 1990s, at least popular in the way that it is now. So this music mirrors what you'd hear on mainstream radio in terms of like style and characteristic, but you wouldn't have the objectionable content.
So think, you know, no sex, no drugs, those kinds of things.
Oh, like Amy Grant?
Yes. Like Amy Grant.
This is kind of a throwback reference, but I know she started in contemporary Christian music and then crossed over into mainstream pop with songs like Baby Baby.
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Chapter 3: What role do algorithms play in manifestation?
Its growth coincided with this kind of moment of cultural panic that brought together a lot of white evangelicals, think moral majority moment, politically speaking. And this industry really rose up because it offered an alternative to MTV, an alternative to hot radio. You had parents that were worried, oh, the teens are listening to this music that has all this objectionable content.
Here is this kind of clean Christian version of it.
I see. CCM has been around for some decades. There have been big names who are making this kind of music. Why is it seeing this surge right now?
Well, there have been multiple surges in CCM. So these like crossover moments, there've been multiple of them over the past three decades. So Amy Grant would be one. In the early 2000s, if we were having this conversation, we'd be having it about Switchfoot and a couple of like Christian rock bands.
Whoa, throwback. Jars of Clay.
And you'll remember that like Switchfoot had this moment where, you know, they were on the soundtrack to this Mandy Moore movie, A Walk to Remember. Yeah.
Oh, yeah. I saw it in theaters.
There was this moment in the 2000s where you had Christian bands that were making a lot of inroads in alternative rock music. And those scenes were really closely tied together. But we didn't have streaming yet.
So basically, we haven't really seen this kind of surge in Christian music since the early 2000s.
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Chapter 4: How does Brittany's perspective on manifestation evolve?
Gotcha. You might sing this music.
I see. I see. So when you used to think of Christian music on the airwaves, you might think of someone like Kirk Franklin. Or Mary Mary. But now the music that's really hitting is this super specific style of worship music that CCM artists are writing specifically for you to sing in church.
And so Brandon Lake, who is this Christian artist who's kind of had this explosion all of a sudden through these collaborations, he is a worship pastor at a church in South Carolina. And that, I think, is unique about this moment. There is this figure who is seen as almost like treating his audience as a congregation. And offering them this kind of very direct spiritual encouragement.
And I don't really know what the exact why is, but for some reason, audiences are responding to that kind of message and to this faith-flavored music in an interesting way right now. And he is not the only one.
That's an interesting connection that there's a surge in Christian music because, as you said, many of these male artists are essentially preaching to fans of their music, that there's a market for that kind of musical and spiritual performance. Okay, so we've been talking a lot about categories here like CCM, gospel, worship music. Why should we be paying attention to these categories?
Why do they matter?
Well, when we talk about the reasons why CCM and gospel have historically been divided into different categories –
and you can trace that history back to similarly the way we trace the division between like country and R and B right into the history of race records, the way that different music has been marketed to different racial groups in the U S really since the beginning of the recording industry. And, you know, Country music and CCM are both based in Nashville.
And then you have gospel, which typically comes from the black church. You know, think soaring vocals, mass choirs and praise breaks, as opposed to kind of like the more mellow country tinged sounds of CCM. And now you're seeing Black gospel artists crossing over into the historically white CCM territory, right?
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Chapter 5: What insights do Tara Isabella Burton and Rebecca Jennings offer?
They bring a lot of aspects that sound sonically like gospel music, but there are some pieces that they don't bring with them because white churches won't know how to make that music.
Right. The sound is different. The musical lineage is different. And a lot of that is rooted in segregation.
So there is still this element of kind of church segregation, even shaping the ways that this music is made and produced and marketed and And not just marketed to radio audiences, but marketed to churches. That's the CCLI piece of this. Christian Copyright Licensing International tracks the use of music across churches.
And there's a reason why so much of the music in there is tracking what's being used in white churches. And there's not as much music that is regularly used by Black churches there. So all of this is shaping the Christian music industry and the sounds of popular Christian music as we watch this all unfold.
Coming up.
Why might this music be resonating? What does it tell us about masculinity and conservative politics and the search for faith at this moment?
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The Novelizers Podcast So CCLI is basically licensing their music to different churches, which is used way more in white churches than black churches. And the money behind the CCM machine is basically shaping the culture of contemporary Christianity and thus the entire musical ecosystem. I know that a big part of that has been megachurches and how megachurches kind of play into all of this.
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Chapter 6: How do societal factors impact the appeal of manifestation?
And so I wonder, how do these big mega churches like Hillsong or Bethel play into the economy of this worship music? There's a big economy around this.
Yeah, there is a big economy around this. And I would say that probably for at least 20 years or so now, That megachurch experience has been driving the style and format and intended effect of a lot of CCM, what I would call contemporary worship music. You can find resources. We call it multi-tracks or stems that are created for churches to basically plug and play.
You can buy the padding synth effect that goes underneath this Bethel song.
Oh, so you can recreate the studio experience in your church. 100%.
So there is a whole... industry underneath this music that exists purely to help churches recreate the experience of being at one of these mega churches as closely as they can. Even if I go to a church of 150 people on a Sunday morning, if I don't have 20 musicians on stage, I can buy a couple synth parts. I can buy an electric guitar part. I can buy background vocals. I can buy choir effects.
I can purchase lighting. all of these pieces that make it closer to what you'd see when you watch a recording by Bethel.
That's interesting. Wait, so talk to me about the CCM machine, like how the music kind of feeds the growth of these churches, but also how like the huge resources that these churches now have kind of allowed for this big growth spurt in CCM.
So the interesting thing about CCM CCM and contemporary worship music is that there are a lot of different potential revenue streams. So if we look at a church like Bethel, for example, use Bethel based in Reading, California, Bethel has Bethel TV, which is it's kind of multimedia platform that has a ton of viewers around the world. And it, It generates revenue for that church.
The church has also started its own record label, so it can kind of do a lot of the management of its musicians in-house, which is also lucrative for that as a church. This music also generates revenue through the use in churches. Every time a church uses a song written by Bethel artists, it generates revenue for those artists.
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Chapter 7: Why is the relationship between manifestation and humanity important?
It's like you have to get the right to perform something so that the original artist can profit. That's wild.
Wow. Yeah. And Bethel happened to become popular at the moment when streaming was rising and Social media was also growing exponentially. And so they've really been able to capitalize on getting eyeballs, not just ears, but eyeballs on what they're doing. So they have YouTube monetization. They have Instagram monetization. Wow.
And you have this kind of cycle effect where people are discovering this music on Instagram. Maybe they're going to their worship pastor and saying, did you hear this new song from Bethel? So they're requesting the song, then the church uses it. Then maybe someone in the congregation hears it and they say, I love that song. And they go find it on streaming and they listen to it.
And it creates this feedback loop where this music is getting discovered and used and discovered and used over and over again. And the churches that are producing the most of it are really seeing a lot of revenue and a lot of listenership and growth.
Wow. I am wondering why this trend, why this growth is something that even people who don't listen to this music and aren't Christian, another part of this culture should be paying attention to.
Well, I think there are some Christians who look at that and say, revival is coming. There's a sign of something that's happening. I'm less convinced of that, but I do think it's an interesting question to ask. Why might the messages in this music be resonating with people, especially young people at this moment in time?
I think there might be something to that, that there is a search for music that feels like it's looking beyond themselves, beyond the small kind of internal world and outward, it's worth kind of saying, well, what else is happening around us? A lot of this music is made by men. And a lot of it is a little bit country flavor as well. And to the extent that those things are all connected,
What might be happening there?
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Chapter 8: What conclusions can be drawn about manifestation in our lives?
Why might this music be resonating? What does it tell us about masculinity and conservative politics and the search for faith at this moment? We have an administration right now that talks very openly about wanting to fight against anti-Christian bias out in the world.
And it's hard not to look at that and then look at celebration over Christian music featuring prominently on American Idol and seeing a certain segment of evangelicals feeling like this is our moment.
Hmm, interesting. Well, oh my gosh, I feel so, I feel like my curiosity has been satiated for now. Kelsey, thank you. Thank you. So lately, I've been ending the show by asking all of you to rate and review this show. And oh my gosh, have you shown up. The ratings are going up and more people are following the show. One of you wrote that this is, quote, such a magical podcast.
Another one of you said that this show made you start listening to podcasts for the first time. Let's keep the momentum going and keep growing this community. Help out by rating or reviewing the show wherever you're listening. And thank you.