Exploring the Transcendent: Spirituality in Secular Music, Summaries of World Music

Download Exploring the Transcendent: Spirituality in Secular Music and more Summaries World Music in PDF only on Docsity! Secular Music | 32 Journal of Sociology and Christianity Volume 8, Number 2 • Fall 2018 “You Don't Get Away That Easy:” Rethinking the ‘Secular’ in Secular Music Timothy D. Epp, Redeemer University College, Canada Abstract The dichotomy of the ‘sacred’ versus the ‘profane’ continues to inform discussions of religion and public life. In terms of pop culture, this takes the form of a distinction between the mainstream and Christian music industries, relegating ‘spiritual’ music to the latter category and dismissing any reference to spirituality in mainstream music as demonstrating a ‘weak religiosity.’ I argue that an examination of references to spirituality in song lyrics, complemented with an analysis of artist interviews, reveals that music which we deem ‘secular' is not characterized by absence of attention to spirituality, but rather contains a wide range of approaches to the transcendent, echoing Charles Taylor’s discussion of the ‘nova effect.’ In this study, I draw on Taylor’s A Secular Age in a review of songs from the best albums lists of 2017, as provided by Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, New Musical Express, and Billboard, focusing on references to spirituality in song lyrics. I argue that a re-examination of lyrics may lead us from skepticism toward spirituality in pop music to anticipation of spiritual encounters and reflections by musical artists of all genres. Kew Words: music, sacred, secular, spirituality The day I first happened upon the album Humans by Bruce Cockburn proved to be a turning point for me in terms of my encounters with music and spirituality. What was most significant to me was the place in which I encountered it: a Bible bookstore. I had already passed through several stages of my life’s musical journey. Beginning with my first love, the harmonies of the Beach Boys, I had progressed through the mail-order record club stage, and developed a fondness for Cheap Trick, Prism, and Trooper. But then I answered an altar call at a Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship meeting, which led me to reconsider my 42 record albums as evil. Even “O Canada” came under suspicion. I had heard of backwards masking, and so my friend and I listened to a few tracks which sounded like they might contain hidden Secular Music | 33 Journal of Sociology and Christianity Volume 8, Number 2 • Fall 2018 messages. Convinced that the only music safe to listen to was the Christian contemporary music1 that the Bible bookstore sold, I called the youth from the church together and we congregated at the local garbage dump to watch me burn all of my records. Included in these were The Babys Union Jacks with the song “Jesus Are You There?” and the Little River Band album Sleeper Catcher, with the song “Fall from Paradise.” In spite of their expressions of spiritual searching, I was set in my convictions to the point where I could overlook those songs as anomalies. From then on, I only listened to Christian music; I even reviewed album lyrics before making a purchase, counting the number of times that God was mentioned in each song. I did find some artists to whom I still listen today, but I gradually became disillusioned with much of this music. It simply did not speak to me in terms of my life experience at that time, and seemed to be repeating spiritual platitudes which did nothing to assuage my teenage angst. Then came the day I found Humans. The fact that this album was being sold in a Bible bookstore transgressed my binary opposition between Christian and secular music. The location was ‘sacred,’ but this was mainstream, ‘secular’ music. After listening to more of Cockburn, I discovered that his Christian faith was evidenced in many of his songs and albums. I began searching for other artists who identified as Christian, but who were recording on mainstream labels, and began to listen to Bob Dylan, Cliff Richard, T-Bone Burnett, U2, The Call, Donna Summer, Midnight Oil, The Waterboys, The Alarm, and Kansas. About 15 years ago, I encountered Paste Magazine for the first time, which opened my musical doors even further, and I discovered the songs of Over the Rhine, Damien Jurado, and Pedro the Lion. However, my sacred-secular dichotomy remained largely intact, and I considered these artists unique in the midst of the swamp of worldly music. It was in the early 2000s that I began to explore spirituality in popular music in a more intentional manner. My friend was convinced that bands such as Collective Soul signaled an increased attention to messages of faith in pop culture. I was up for a challenge, and so I began my current journey to find reflections of spirituality in popular songs and albums, and in the biographies of their authors and singers. Beginning with Rolling Stone magazine’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (Rolling Stone 2018a) and its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time (Rolling Stone 2018b), I examined every song on every album for references to spirituality. I decided to expand my search by adding other musical sources, and proceeded to review all of the songs from the ‘best’ or ‘greatest’ songs and albums of the first decade of the 2000s based on lists provided by Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, New Musical Express, and Billboard. Since 2010, I 1 Howard and Streck define Christian contemporary music in the following way: “Standing in the gap between evangelical Christianity on the one side and youth culture on the other, contemporary Christian music offers evangelical Christians who cannot identity with what they see on MTV their own set of alter egos...Christian music provides the evangelical audience with the same ethereal voices, the same driving guitars, and the same chunky rhythms that can be found anywhere on the radio dial-but with one important difference: rather than challenging predominant evangelical values, this music affirms them” (Howard and Streck 1999:5). Secular Music | 36 Journal of Sociology and Christianity Volume 8, Number 2 • Fall 2018 While the exploration of spirituality in music is not new to academic literature, I find that current studies tend to be limited in terms of being artist-specific (Duffett 2015; Gellel 2013; Hausmann 2013), genre-specific (Fillingim 2003; Johnson 2013; Moberg 2012; Pinn, 2007; Tinajero 2013), without a sample, and thus appearing as a random selection of songs about things such as angels; or dismissive of the expression of spirituality in popular music as weak religiosity (Weinstein 1995), as evidenced by a surface-level expression of spiritual imagery, song titles and catchphrases lacking any apparent depth of meaning. In contrast, I propose that attention to spirituality crosses lines of musical genre, and often reflects the life experiences and identities of musical artists. Even when these connections to artist experience and identity are less obvious, lyrics often reflect attention to spirituality. In Gods and Guitars, Michael J. Gilmour provides a rationale for exploring spirituality in the lyrics of popular music. Responding to critics who challenge the importance of examining song lyrics, Gilmour notes that “when organized religion does not play a part in a person’s life (and even when it does), art forms provide another venue for engaging our most intimate and pressing concerns” (Gilmour 2009:36). He identifies the various ways artists refer to spirituality- as personal belief, as artistic motif, or as a target of criticism and rage (real or staged)- encouraging the reader to take the religious reflections of these artists seriously. “We can learn much about religion, and perhaps even the reception of religion by audiences, if we listen closely to these artists” (Gilmour 2009:29). In the remainder of this article, I will explore the discourse of spirituality in song lyrics from the ‘best’ albums of 2017, as ranked by Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, New Musical Express, and Billboard. Following Gilmour’s lead, I will examine lyrics in terms of their integration of human relationships (especially romance and sexuality) and spirituality, the ways in which artists challenge organized religion, and the ways in which they affirm faith and express their own spiritual beliefs. I suggest that while artists commonly draw on a cultural vocabulary with readily recognizable and accessible phrases and images, musical artists also often demonstrate a more in-depth approach to spirituality through their critiques and challenges of organized religion, their expression of spiritual searching and questioning, and their affirmation of spirituality including songs in the form of prayers and blessings. Methodology In this study, I have utilized the sociological methodology of content analysis (Neuendorf 2016) with attention to themes of spirituality in the lyrics of popular songs. I first accessed the lists of best albums of 2017 on-line, as published by Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, New Musical Express and Billboard. These web-sites were selected to represent a combination of American psychological truth...they are more likely to be examples of personal rhetoric.” (Frith 1996:163), I nonetheless propose that song lyrics do reflect themes present in the broader society, and at times in the artist’s life. Secular Music | 37 Journal of Sociology and Christianity Volume 8, Number 2 • Fall 2018 and British (New Musical Express) sources. They were also selected to represent the albums considered the best by music critics and those which were most popular among consumers in terms of albums sales and on-line streaming (Billboard). The music critic sources each publish annual lists of the best 50 albums from the previous year, while Billboard publishes an annual list of the 200 most popular albums. In order to maintain consistency, I have analyzed the top 50 albums in the Billboard list.3 In order to read the song lyrics, I utilized the web-site AZLyrics.com based on its comprehensive collection of lyrics and because I found it to be more user-friendly than other lyrics sites. When an album was not available on AZlyrics.com, I utilized Genius.com. The current sample, upon which this article is based, includes 2080 songs from 152 albums. Taking an open approach, I created a list of terms and phrases reflecting attention to spirituality based on careful readings of song lyrics, instead of approaching the lyrics with a ready-made list of terms. After identifying and highlighting words and phrases (and at times entire songs) from these lists, I created an index for each term/phrase, indicating each song in which the word/phrase was mentioned across the sample. I then coded each word/phrase (and sometimes the entire song) as follows: 1. Cultural Vocabulary: These are terms and phrases found in popular songs, consisting of only one or a few words, which are appropriated from the realm of the sacred in North American society, and used for purposes which do not reflect any clear intent to express spirituality. While attention to these terms may appear trivial, I argue that they reflect the extent to which attention to spirituality has infused our vocabulary as a society, and the ways in which artists continue to draw on this vocabulary for their own purposes. 2. Challenging/Critiquing Spirituality: These are words/phrases, and sometimes entire songs or albums, which indicate a confrontational approach to spirituality, for example critiquing organized religion or challenging the existence of God. In his book Acting in Concert (1998), Mattern writes of the confrontational use of music to challenge the established social and political system. As an integral element of society, the church and more generally established religious practice are often subject to challenge and critique, and sometimes to outright confrontation and condemnation. 3. Seeking Spirituality: These are songs which express a search for, or questioning of, spirituality. These songs may describe the process of spiritual searching, or may more directly ask questions of a spiritual nature, for example about the existence of God. 3 Note that the 2017 Billboard lists do not only include recordings from the previous year, as these lists reflect consumer choices which may include earlier recordings (for example, the 2016 recording Starboy by The Weeknd). Secular Music | 38 Journal of Sociology and Christianity Volume 8, Number 2 • Fall 2018 4. Affirming Spirituality: These are words/phrases, and again sometimes entire songs or even albums, which affirm or take a positive approach to spirituality, for example affirming the existence of God or angels. This category includes songs which take the form of prayers, defined here as direct communication with the spiritual realm or with divine being(s), at times petitioning or challenging God, or offering a blessing to someone. Finally, I have conducted on-line research to explore the ways by which musical artists self-identify in terms of spirituality and religious affiliation. My findings suggest that popular music artists are assuming a range of orientations towards spirituality through their songs and albums, including those of established religions such as Christianity and Islam, and alternative forms of spirituality. I have also found that attention to the transcendent crosses all music genres represented in this study, suggesting that spirituality is a pervasive theme throughout popular music. I recognize that one of the limitations of this study is that it says very little about the process of meaning-making, as listeners derive and negotiate their own sense of the transcendent and spirituality, at times disregarding the actual song lyrics.4 The listener’s experience is complex, as Marsh and Roberts have demonstrated in their discussion of the Magisteria-Ibiza Spectrum (Marsh and Roberts 2012), being influenced by a myriad of social factors, and yet reflecting the individual’s creative ability to interpret the song in unique and changing ways. These complex phenomena of interpretation and meaning-making deserve to be explored through further research. Cultural Vocabulary In an interview with The Telegraph, musical artist Morrissey spoke about his relationship with spirituality. When asked if he spoke to God, Morrissey replied, “Well, we all do. Which is a form of prayer itself. The most common phrase bandied about these days is ‘Oh my God’. People say it automatically all the time, not realising that that’s a form of prayer” (Deacon 2011). My first category of analysis, that of cultural vocabulary, focuses on this automatic level of discourse, the use of words which are also used to describe or relate to the transcendent, but without further consideration or elaboration. As Gilmour notes, “religious language does not require a spiritual object to be meaningful” (Gilmour 2009:72). In this study, the cultural vocabulary category is represented in most albums from the current sample (405 songs on 110 albums). 4 For further discussion on the relationship between words and meaning, see the writings of Simon Frith: Sound Effects (1981), Music for Pleasure (1988), and Performing Rites (1996). Secular Music | 41 Journal of Sociology and Christianity Volume 8, Number 2 • Fall 2018 thing I know/ Is that if you're wrong/ The hurt will go on/ The end will never come”-“Hurt Goes On”). Others, while taking a slightly less nihilistic worldview, nevertheless sing from a world- weary state of disillusionment with society and its institutions, including religion. Songs from the latest Foo Fighters album take this approach, commenting on the soul (“Got no soul to keep/ Ain't no brother's keeper” – “Make It Right”) and paradise (“Where is your Shangri la now?” - “Happy Ever After (Zero Hour)”). Given the band’s name, it seems slightly ironic that The Priests also reflect this theme in their music: “to people in sanctuaries all I can say is/ You will not, you will not be saved” (“Nothing Feels Natural”). Some song lyrics also draw on religious imagery to describe a coming apocalypse. According to Beck, these are “secular times, these times”, in an era when values are up for grabs (“To your demons/ nothing's even right or wrong” – “Wow”), our future is uncertain (“Hands up in the air/ living out on a prayer”- “Up All Night”), as is truth (“I see the silhouette of everything/ I thought I ever knew/ Turning into voodoo” – “I’m So Free”). Anything and everything can be bought and sold (“You stole away like a thief, reeling from the sticker shock, Of the price they put upon your soul”- “Dear Life”). The world is a ‘broken carousel’, in which we must settle for the ‘consolation prize’ on the road to Valhalla (“Square One”). Time is running out (“I’m so Free”), judgment day is coming but there’s nothing we can do about it (“Oh there's trouble on the way/ Get a dog and pony for a judgement day”- “Dreams”). Our fate is inescapable, “spinning out of control on a broken carousel” (“Square One”). At times Beck’s lyrics seem to echo the book of Ecclesiastes: “Time is running out/ Nothing new under the sun/ Better get down” (“I’m So Free”). Similarly, Residente’s “Apocalyptic” portrays a “final judgement day” in which “miracles don't save people anymore/ Because saints threw themselves from a bridge/…animals eat each other/ And religions rip their necks off.” Perhaps most notable in terms of its critique of religion and faith is Father John Misty’s album Pure Comedy, which the artist describes as: the story of a species born with a half-formed brain. ...Over time, and as their brains prove to be remarkably good at inventing meaning where there is none, the species becomes the purveyor of increasingly bizarre and sophisticated ironies....designed to help cope with the species’ loathsome vulnerability and to try and reconcile how disproportionate their imagination is to the monotony of their existence. Something like that. (Sub Pop 2018) Josh Tillman, the artist behind the Father John Misty identity, sees organized religion as a central element in the ‘pure comedy’ of human existence. In the album’s title song, the artist sings: “Comedy, now that's what I call pure comedy/Just waiting until the part where they start to believe/They're at the center of everything/ And some all powerful being endowed this horror show with meaning.” Secular Music | 42 Journal of Sociology and Christianity Volume 8, Number 2 • Fall 2018 For Tillman, the earth is a “godless rock” (“Things It Would Have Been Helpful to Know Before the Revolution”), on which we make “all our best attempts at transcendence” (“Birdie”). We hold to our “creation myth,” as we listen to commercialized Christian contemporary music by “bullshit bands... that sound like dollar signs and Amy Grant” featuring “five young dudes from white families... [who] sing like angels with whiter teeth” (“The Memo”). In these songs, Christian social outreach amounts to little more than the ‘Starvation Army’ (“A Bigger Paper Bag”). Tillman writes of the suffering people already endure in their hell on earth, and then in “When the God of love returns there’ll be hell to pay,” he confronts God about the final judgment: We crawled out of the darkness And endured your impatience We're more than willing to adjust And now you've got the gall to judge us At times, the options of spiritual faith and scientific theory appear equally devoid of meaning. On her album All American Made, Margo Price sings: You can take your pick, You either came from an ape, Or the dad of a magic man up on a cross (“Loner”) Randy Newman’s song “The Great Debate” expounds on the topic of creationism versus evolutionary theory in its dramatization of the Scopes Monkey Trial, with the ‘true believers’ (singing “I'll take Jesus every time!”) squaring off against proponents of Darwinian evolutionary theory. In the end, the arguments of both sides are reduced to ‘merchandise’. Other artists confront hypocrisy in organized religion. In “2100,” Run the Jewels raps “Seen the devil give a sermon in the church.” Similarly, Princess Nokia sings: “Everybody make a cross when they know they 'bout to sin” (“Chinese Slippers”). Finally, themes of atheism inform some songs. According to Lana del Rey: “We're the masters of our own fate, We're the captains of our own souls” (“Lust for Life”). In his song “Living with Your Ailments,” British singer Kiran Leonard sings: “There is a happiness beyond meaning/ ...I can just be mortal, godless, and free.” Seeking Spirituality According to Taylor, our current society is characterized by individual choice, and often by a lack of commitment to any one perspective on spirituality. In A Secular Age, he writes: the salient feature of the modern cosmic imaginary is not that it has fostered materialism, or enabled people to recover a spiritual outlook beyond materialism, to return to it as it were to religion, though it has done both these things. But the most important fact about it[...]is that it has opened a space in which people can wander Secular Music | 43 Journal of Sociology and Christianity Volume 8, Number 2 • Fall 2018 between and around all these options without having to land clearly and definitively in any one. (Taylor 2007: 351) Among the albums which I burned at that youth group evening so long ago was a copy of The Babys’ Union Jacks, on which lead singer John Waite asks “Jesus, are you there/ and do you really care?” (“Jesus, are You There?”). Waite’s spiritual questioning is not uncommon among pop music artists. In the current sample, I found 105 songs in this category, across 60 albums. In an interview with Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast, Crack magazine described Zauner’s journey to write the lead song from her debut album Psychopomp. The song “In Heaven” was written in the wake of her mother’s death from cancer: Alienated by both the religious consolations of her extended family network, who’d tell her things like ‘she’s in a better place’ and ‘she’s in heaven,’ as well as the seemingly dispassionate logic of her atheist friends, Zauner turned to the works of psychoanalyst Carl Jung as a “middle ground between spirituality and religion. (Yalcinkaya n.d.) Several songs on Concrete & Gold by the Foo Fighters explore the connection between humans and the cosmos. In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, lead singer Dave Grohl commented on the lyrics and music video for the song “The Sky is a Neighborhood”: “I've always been a sky-watcher since I was a kid. I've always just stared at the sky and waited for a sign.” This sense of searching is reflected in the songs “The Line” (“satellite searching for a sign of life”) and the album’s title track (“tried levitation, you’re not alone, the stars are holding open, a door we’ll never close”). For some artists, it is disillusionment with organized religion and its practitioners which has led to this state of spiritual uncertainty and searching. Referring to his grandfather, “a preacher man,” Jay-Z raps: ...I hated religion 'cause here was this Christian He was preachin' Sundays, versus how he was livin' Monday Someday I forgive him 'Cause strangely our division led to multiple religions I studied Muslim, Buddhist, and Christians (“Legacy”) For others, the search for the transcendent is set against disillusionment with contemporary social problems. Arcade Fire’s album Everything Now is an insightful exploration of the trappings of our insatiable drive to consume, juxtaposed against a search for true fulfillment. Humans are “searching for signs of life” (“Signs of Life”), longing to “live forever” (“Peter Pan”), and wondering if there could be a “Good God” (“Good God Damn”), while our innocence quickly fades (“We were born innocent/ but it lasts a day”- “Put Your Money on Me”) and we are left to face our sinful nature as “trumpets of angels call for my head” (“Put Your Money on Me”). In the end, Arcade Fire concludes that “We Don’t Deserve Love.” Questions of spirituality are often expressed in the context of musings about the end of life. Pink sings: “I don’t have the answers/ but the question is clear/ Let me ask you/ Where Secular Music | 46 Journal of Sociology and Christianity Volume 8, Number 2 • Fall 2018 The terms and phrases found in the songs under review seem to reflect their author’s interest in spirituality. God is mentioned in 138 songs, and is most often referred to as male (in 27 songs) and in the singular tense (the term ‘gods’ appears in only 14 songs), suggesting a monotheistic, patriarchal (Abrahamic?) approach to religion. Jesus is mentioned in 36 songs, Jah is mentioned in 7 songs, Karma appears in six songs, the words ‘Jehovah,’ ‘Jehovah’s Witnesses,’ and ‘Gurus’ each appear in two songs, while ‘Buddha,’ ‘Buddhist,’ and ‘Chakras’ are each mentioned once. One song includes both the Guru Mantra and Hare Krishna Mantra.5 Terms and phrases from the songs which suggest attention to Abrahamic faiths include: Bible (in 10 songs), Christian (6), Christmas (15), Church (31), Devil (40), Hallelujah (16), Hell (48), Lord (56), Prayer (101), Saints (21), Saved (20), Sin(ner) (42), Soul (102), and Sunday (13). Several albums are thematically spiritual. The latest album by Chronixx, Chronology, is an experience of Rastafarian praise: “To the King of all kings, all praise is due/... Creation glorifies Creator/ So all deeds done are in the name of my Maker” (“Legend”). Chronixx isn’t shy about singing his faith. In “Spanish Town Rockin,” Chronixx raps “Me read me bible everyday/ A so me well Biblical/ And meditate in the morning so me well spiritual.” In “Big Bad Sound,” he pays tribute to the central figure of Rastafarianism and demonstrates the religion’s Abrahamic roots: Haile Selassie I, conquering lion Ah from the land of King Solomon Reign and rule over Ethiopian Reign the believing of the ark of covenant More than the dwellings of Jacob and Abraham So the lord God loveth holy mount Zion In “Ghetto Paradise,” Chronixx sings about both the beauty and social inequality in Jamaica: “Jamaica spiritually irie/ Pretty and it nice/ Still a ghetto paradise and mi nah apologise.” He writes of seeing the sun every morning as a blessing (“I Can”), and identifies as one of ‘Selassie children’: “Give thanks to Rastafari/ See another day/ Thanks to Rastafari” (“Tell Me Now”). The track “I Know Love” ends the album with a song of faith in Jah: “I know Jah Jah, yeah, set me free.” While Chronology stands out in its focus on Rastafarian spirituality, themes of praise and prayer are common throughout the current sample. Other albums that demonstrate a theme of spirituality running through most, if not all of their songs include U2 Songs of Experience, Kendrick Lamar DAMN, J. Cole 4 Your Eyez Only, A Pentatonix Christmas, DJ Khaled Grateful, Chance the Rapper Coloring Book, and Stormzy Gang Signs and Prayer. Prayer is often mentioned in popular music, although the object of prayer is not always specified. In Open Mike Eagle’s “Hymnal,” Sammus raps “Then I rap and I pray and the grief 5 George Harrison, “My Sweet Lord”, from the Guardians of the Galaxy 2 soundtrack. Secular Music | 47 Journal of Sociology and Christianity Volume 8, Number 2 • Fall 2018 stops.” Perhaps most notable in the current sample is Sam Smith’s song “Prayer,” in which Smith is tempted to “turn my back on religion,” but then decides to pray: “There's dread in my heart and fear in my bones/ And I just don't know what to say/ Maybe I'll pray.” In this song, Smith’s doubt is transformed into a prayer: “I have never believed in you, no, but I'm gonna pray.” The song “Him” also takes the form of a prayer, as Smith sings of his struggles to reconcile his Christian faith with his sexual orientation. Holy Father Judge my sins I’m not afraid of what they will bring I’m not the boy that you thought you wanted I love him Smith is not the only artist who presents songs in the form of prayers. Prayers may appear as brief passages in songs, including Vince Staples’ “BagBak,” Paramore’s “Hard Times,” Kesha’s “Praying,” U2’s “Lights of Home,” Kendrick Lamar’s “FEAR,” Run the Jewels’ “Thieves! Screamed the Ghost,” and Charlotte Gainsbourg’s “Sylvia Says.” At times an entire verse of stanza takes the form of a prayer. Stormzy’s “21 Gun Salute,” “Blinded by Your Grace Pt. 2,” and “Lay Me Bare” serve as examples. Yo God, what's good? I need you bad Devil's in my ear I need you back (“Lay Me Bare”) DJ Khaled’s “Unchanging Love” and Big Sean’s “Intro (I Decided)” are also in the form of prayers in their entirety, while Logic’s “Waiting Room” is rapped in the form of a conversation between the artist and God, who concludes the dialogue with this: Once you have walked in the shoes of every race, religion, gender, sexual orientation Loving and hateful person It is only then that you will understand how precious life truly is Songs may also take the form of blessings. U2, with guest Kendrick Lamar, play upon the format of the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12), taking verbal jabs at those who are arrogant, superstars, and the filthy rich (“Get Out of Your Own Way,” “American Soul”). Words of blessing also appear in Lamar’s “Glow,” Chance the Rapper’s “Summer Friends,” and in Stormzy’s “100 Bags”: Hello, hello my son, good morning …May the God of Jehovah bless you Guide you but teach you everything you are doing (Stormzy, “100 Bags”) At times, references to faith by artists reflect their perspective on America (Lana del Rey’s “God Bless America -and all the Beautiful Women in It”). At other times, faith appears as a central element in childhood memories (“Pile in the church pew rows/ Gran made the best yeast rolls/ Gospel of stories told/ 'Bout the one way to save your soul”-Valerie June, “Long Secular Music | 48 Journal of Sociology and Christianity Volume 8, Number 2 • Fall 2018 Lonely Road”), or in the context of remembering a loved one: “Mama told me stay strong/ grandma told me stay on/ Now she looking down, throwing blessings” (Migos, “Out Yo Way”). Other artists and songs which make the association between spirituality and death include Kevin Morby (“Pearly Gates,” “Downtown Lights”), Wolf Alice (“Visions of a Life”), Chris Stapleton (“Daddy Doesn’t Pray Anymore”), and Florida Georgia Line (“Dig Your Roots,” “While He’s Still Around”). God is also invoked in light of concerns regarding social injustice. Margo Price sings No matter your religion, no matter your race No matter your orientation No matter your creed and no matter your taste No matter your denomination We are all the same in the eyes of God But in the eyes of rich white men No more than a maid to be owned like a dog A second-class citizen (“Pay Gap”) Robert Plant’s Carry Fire, described by allmusic.com as “an album of hope,”6 draws on religious imagery to bring its songs about imperialism, immigration, and violence to the listener. In “Bones of Saints,” Plant seems to be singing about mass shootings: I hear the children scream But then the fear abound And that's the leading question Where all the money comes I'll say who makes the bullets If you tell me who sells the guns Artists sometimes express spirituality as a battle with evil forces: “Went to war with the devil and shaytan/ He wore a bad toupee and a spray tan” (Run the Jewels “Talk to Me”); “You defeat the devil when you hold onto hope” (“2100”). Finally, musical artists at times draw on, paraphrase, or simply include words of sacred scriptures. In the current sample, these are most often Bible passages, but may include words from other inspiration sources including Gandhi (Run the Jewels, “Thursday in the Danger Room”), the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. (Run the Jewels, “Thieves! Screamed the Ghost”), and Carl Sagan (Kesha, “Spaceship”). References to Biblical passages are found in the following songs: Chronixx, “Big Bad Sound” (Philippians 2:10, 11), “Country Boy” (John 8:11), “I Can” (Psalm 121:1), “Selassie Children” (Psalm 118:22), and “I Know Love” (Genesis 1:2, 3-4); Kendrick Lamar, “FEAR” (Deuteronomy 28:28, Amos 3:2); Run the Jewels, “Talk to Me” (Ephesians 6:12); Bjork, “Sue Me” (1 Kings 3:16-28); Moses Sumney, “Quarrel” (Luke 12:48) and 6 Robert Plant: Carry Fire, https://www.allmusic.com/album/carry-fire-mw0003102509. Retrieved September 4, 2018. 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