Mashup Religion: Pop Music and Theological Invention

6 Lyrics

147 6 LYRICS INVENTING THEOLOGY IN RESPONSE TO POPULAR MUSIC Myths are metaphors that stand for things other and greater than themselves. —Peter R. Stillman, Introduction to Myth In this final chapter, I want to shift focus from the analysis of musical fandoms (a form of theoethnographic study) to the analysis of musical texts (a form of theoliterary study). As a way of sharpening our understanding of the reception of the popular song, I want to focus on how to read and interpret the theology within lyrical content. I will begin by outlining a brief method of text analysis that will help us know what to look for in these texts. Then I will shift gears and demonstrate the method by unpacking several key forms of theology expressed in musical lyrics today. This kind of analysis, of course, brings the lens of theology directly into play and invites a missiological and apologetic element into theological engagement with popular culture. The goal is to learn how to identify key clusters of theologically relevant ideas in the words of an artist in order to bring them into conversation with theological categories that belong to the Christian faith historically and confessionally . This, in turn, can help theologians invent theological messages 148 — Mashup Religion that will connect to the religious desires expressed in popular music, while offering complexity, depth, and steerage that is resourced by a particular religious tradition. In order to illustrate this method, I will use as case studies several quasi-theologies that are afoot in the popular music in and around my social location in Nashville. With the term “quasi-theology,” I intend to designate a myth, root metaphor, or worldview having some resemblance to Christian theology and expressing what Bill Friskics-Warren calls an “urge for transcendence.”1 A quasi-theology potentially or actually connects with an aspect or model of Christian theology. In each instance, I will use the music of one or two artists to tease out the contours of a quasi-theology. I will speak briefly about the general contours of these theologies, and then bring a Christian theological perspective to bear and indicate in broad terms what I think theologians (in my case Reformed theologians) might say in response. Remembering the goals of complexity, depth, and steerage identified in chapter 5, I will indicate how theologians can add more complexity and depth to these quasi-theologies, steering the religious impulses within them in a direction more conversant with Christian faith. This, I think, will provide some sense of how a theologian can both learn from and engage cultural theologies that are all around us today. My primary goal is to teach a simple method of theological text analysis. My responses to these artists’ lyrics are simply one example of the kind of theological reflection and conversation that might ensue in relation to the lyrics of popular music. Theological Analysis of Lyrics With very few exceptions, most songs or catalogues of songs (discographies ) can be best analyzed by making use of a narrative form of analysis. Before beginning such an analysis, however, it is helpful to assess two basic aspects of lyrics, ultimate concern and the idea of the holy, using categories I have adapted from Kelton Cobb’s very helpful book The Blackwell Guide to Theology and Popular Culture.2 Lyrics — 149 Ultimate Concern First, the theologian can work to identify the ultimate concern within the lyrics. According to Paul Tillich, an ultimate concern is that which makes an unconditional claim upon us and is at the center of all other values. For Tillich there is no such thing as an unbeliever . Everyone has some sort of ultimate concern, and faith is a state of being ultimately concerned.3 As Cobb states it, “An ultimate concern is one’s weightiest conviction, loyalty, or interest that assigns the relative gravity to all other convictions, loyalties, and interests that one holds.”4 It is important to keep working until one is certain that the idea or value identified as ultimate within an artist’s lyrics is not, in fact, secondary—or pointing toward something still higher. For instance, the analyst may not want to settle for categories such as sex or lust (unless clearly ends in themselves), but ask if love (either erotic or selfless) is the ultimate concern. Likewise, a concern with fairness or retribution may indicate that a larger issue of justice is the...