Why should the devil have all the good music?

A line from an old song but I have been thinking a lot about a post that Tony Morgan made this week about the music genre we use in church in comparison to popular music genre today in our culture. He compared a poll of his blog readership to the top 100 downloads on iTunes. Not too scientific I know but I found it really interesting. Here is the UK split for the top 100 downloads on iTunes today:

Pop 36%
Alternative 19%
Rock 12%
Dance 10%
Hip Hop Rap 10%
R&B 10%
Electronic 3%

If I was going to describe our music at MKCC it would probably be pop / rock. Clearly music is a massive influence on so many peoples lives and it made me think about how we as a church should react to this if at all.

What I do know is that in the UK we have a tradition of some great Hymn writers and maybe I am showing my age but I love a great hymn. Maybe not so well known though is that many of the writers took the pup songs of the day and rewrote the words. They had a well known secular tune so that many people would recognise it with different words. I think they were on to something.

In the UK of 2008 we live in a very diverse society with a wide range of likes and dislikes. I am convinced that we need to take a lesson from the old hymn writers and take every opportunity to connect people with the gospel message.

Growing up in church 20 years ago changing the style of music was a hot topic that caused many a discussion even arguments. The use of drums, guitars and the like was revolutionary then with a desire to be more relevant to the world around us. Maybe there is another bar for us to raise.