30 September 2004

Academic claims musicals are the new religion

EducationGuardian.co.uk | higher news |: "The Rev Ian Bradley from the school of divinity believes musicals like Les Miserables and The Lion King provide their audiences with a distinct philosophy of life, as well as entertainment. Churches have a great deal to learn from modern musicals and could usefully incorporate their spiritual and theological values, and the pastoral care they offer, into their services,". I wonder if he goes on to discuss the fact that a large number of popular modern worship songs sound like they come from a Westend musical? I would say that perhaps this is an unconscious aping of what is commented on in the book [apparently]. It probably also has a huge amount to do with the musical forms,: dramatic build-ups, tear-jerking chord structures and satisfying resolutions. Both the musicals and the worship songs are trying to send people home feeling uplifted and as if they have experienced a range of emotional states ...
Too cynical?

No comments:

Review: It happened in Hell

 It seemed to me that this book set out to do two main things. One was to demonstrate that so many of our notions of what goes under the lab...